


Wayward

by Cookieek



Category: Red Shoes and the 7 Dwarfs (2019)
Genre: (From the family), Ableism, Ableist Language, Arthur might be a bit Ooc, F/M, Family Issues, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, I am not a writer, Inspired by Swedish folklore, Light Angst, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Was originally supposed to be a reader insert, please give me feedback, takes place after the movie
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:00:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 80,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25052080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cookieek/pseuds/Cookieek
Summary: It had been almost two years since Princess Harriet left the castle to adopt her new identity as Miss Edda, the young magician. She hadn’t expected anyone to really care, and for those two years, no one really did.Nothing last forever though.Please give me feedback, I’m not an experienced writer when it comes to fiction, I’m mostly only doing this because this fandom needs more content.
Relationships: Prince Arthur/Original Character
Comments: 72
Kudos: 71





	1. In which someone almost die

Princess Harriet was one of the lesser know princesses on Fairytail island, being the middle child in-between two far more popular siblings. Not that it had bothered her to much, it had made fleeing from the clutches of royalty much easier. If she was known for anything, it would be her adverseness towards being in the spotlight, or her book-smart tendencies, so it had surprised no one when she had decided to move out to the country and basically become a hermit. It had taken a few long discussions with her parents, but after a while they relented, simply instructed her to keep in contact via mail, and then she went.

There had of course been others that fought back besides her parents, like her older sister, but it had been a long time since Harriet had taken her thoughts on anything too seriously. The only thing her sister wanted was to baby her, and Harriet for one was sick of being babied.

On the the other side of the spectrum was her little brother who frankly could care less about what she did and was basically not involved at all in the moving away discussion. Harriet wasn’t to fond of her brother either, so the feeling was mutual.

Regardless, even after almost two years had passed she still got letters from both her parents, and one from her sister, that was almost always about the same thing. Worry, a bunch of worry.

Worry that was not needed. Yes, she was doing fine. Yes, she didn’t need to get an allowance anymore. No, she was not dead or dying.

She had spent almost two years in the hut in the middle of the forrest at this point, and she was just, fine. She knew at this point how to make money by herself, after learning to make small potions, charms, and spells and the like. She was of course by no means a witch or spell-caster, but she had studied magic long before becoming a hermit so she was hardly incompetent. There was plenty of magic one could master even without naturally being born with it, at least if you knew where to look.

Every week the nearby town would have vendors set up their stalls for potential customers and there she would also be, not as a princess, but as miss Edda, the young magic apprentice.

It’s fine, or well it was. A few weeks ago, to her sight dismay it, seemed like people had after all this time started to notice the missing daughter, and so the kingdom was informed of the princess departing.

“Secret princess hiding in your town?” The tabloids that Edda would see on her way to set up her stall had started to read soon enough after that. She would grimace a bit at the paper, she had been hoping, well expecting, for no one to care about that one princess taking her leave, but now the news where all over the place.

Funny enough it seemed like they really had to dig to find any even remotely recent paintings of her to use, because the pictures they eventually ended up using was painted over ten years ago. She wasn’t very fond of being painted, and people where normally not so fond of painting her either.

This day when she had been at the town no one would shut up about the missing princess, where where she? What was she doing? Why was no one with her? How had her looks significantly changed since her last portrait had been painted?

The last question was somehow the one that bugged her the most, what did it matter how she looked, why was that always the big question that everyone asked. No one was asking about her accomplishments, it always was about her goddamn looks.

Harriet always knew that she didn’t look like a princess was “supposed” to look, it was one of the reasons she had tried to escape the stupid title in the first place. Princesses was supposed to be dainty and thin, they weren’t supposed to look like they hadn’t sleeps in a week or have a double chin. But no one cared what a weird magic woman looked like, just as long as her stuff worked and she was competent enough.

She slammed the door to her hut in the woods in frustration. She started to pack up her tings until she noticed the flyer that she had accidentally packed down with her stuff when she was taking down her stall.

“Join on the quest to find the missing princess! Calling all the princes and high class young men!” It read with bold letters.

She crumpled the flyer and threw it in her trashcan. Couldn’t they just let her be!

There was a small knock on her door.

“We're closed!” She was too tired to talk to anyone else today.

There was a short silence before the knocking came again, this time a bit more hurried than before.

“Go home! It’s close-“ she cut herself off as she started to feel familiar shaking in the ground.

The knocking came again even more frantic.

She shot a look at her clock, before she sprinted to open the door. She was barley thinking as she dragged in what seemed to be a small child inside the safety of her hut, away from the hands reaching up from the ground outside for it.

The forrest was very dangerous to be inside at night especially without any defensive charms to keep one safe, which was something she had expected everyone to know about around here, but evidently no one had told the child that had been slamming on the door.

She turned around to ask just what on Earth the child was thinking, but was shut up from the realisation that the person she had dragged in wasn’t a child, but a dwarf. A very young looking and completely dazed dwarf.

Shaking herself out of her surprise, she grasped the dwarf by his shoulders, and hunched down.

“What where you doing out there at this time, my good sir? You could have died! Have no one told you about the need for defence charms around here!?”

This seemed to shakes the dwarf out of his stupor to reply.

“Hey, calm down miss! I was perfectly fine and I don’t need any charms.” He said, as if he hadn’t just been two seconds away from certain death.

“Those knocks didn’t sound like they came from someone who was ‘perfectly fine’, sir.” She said as she stood up and crossed her arms.

“Ah, well. You know.” He seemed to stumble over his words before he snapped his fingers. “I was just making sure you where safe from the monsters in these woods! It’s not very safe for a young lady to live in the woods by herself, you know.”

Edda rolled her eyes at his oblivious lie. “How kind of you sir. Is it because of that same kindness that you entered the woods in the first place?”

“Of course! I was told there was an young woman living here all by herself and I just had to investigate!” He had puffed out his chest in an attempt to look bigger, and them crossed his arms over it. “Like I said, this forrest is not a safe place for you to live.”

“Yeah I know, that’s why this entire house is covered in protection charms, and also why I find it so absurd that you would go into the woods it so late in the evening.” She said exasperated.

His face took on a sour look. “Well, I guess I’m not wanted here.”

Edda’s eyes widened as she stopped him from opening the door again. “Sir are you insane!? Those things are still out there waiting to tear you limb from limb!” She motioned at the window, outside of which the arms could be seen standing completely still (the only movement coming from wind making them occasionally wave a bit), waiting for their prey to leave the safety of the hut. “They will only disappear in the later morning, both you and I have to stay in here until then.”

He looked over at the window and then her. “Well if your so gracious to let me stay here, Miss, then I will.”

“Good, I am not in the mood to have another persons death on my conscious,” she turned away from him and wandered over to the small kitchen in the hut. “Please make yourself comfortable while I figure out what to make for food, sir...?” She turned to him again expectantly, she had yet to learn his name.

“Arthur, and what about you, Miss...?” He said.

“You may call me miss Edda, sir.” she responded as she started digging trough the cabinets for a wayward pasta container.

“Arthur, Miss Edda, don’t tell me you already forgot it?” He said, apparently having walked up to her during her digging.

“No i didn’t... Arthur, sir is just my default way to refer to men,” she said looking down at him (she could have sworn the voice was coming from higher up before...) “Now please let me make some food. I don’t know about you but I haven’t eaten since midday and I need to eat something now.”

They sat in silence a bit as she made the food. It was way more uncomfortable than she had expected and she could hear him seemingly fidgeting on the chair he had sat down on.

“So, Arthur, may I ask what your actual plan was when you decided to barge into a forrest and look for a young lady’s house at this time.” She was curious of what sort of thought process could lead to something like this.

“Had none, it was more of an instinct.”

“Not very good instincts if they send you stumbling into certain death.” She snickered a bit, starting to get over the shock of having to save a person from death.

“Then you’ve never felt the adventuring instinct! If it doesn’t send you into danger than your doing it wrong.” He sounded extremely confident over his words.

She just smiled to herself. “So your the expert on this huh?”

“Yeah! Basically. I may not look like it but I am an adventurer!”

Edda just exhaled a bit out of her nose at this, but didn’t say anything. Her guest seemed to take this as sign of disbelief and started to rattle of tales of his big exploits. She only half listened, occasionally humming and oh-ing at his probably over exaggerated tall tales, but it was nice to have some background noise. Nice enough for her to forget her current worries over everything in her life at the moment.

But then as they where eating the dinner however the topic of the missing princess came up.

“Weird that it was kept under wraps for so long, right?” Arthur said. “Makes you wonder why it was only brought right up now?”

Edda hummed more noncommittally than before, this was obviously the last thing she wanted to talk about, but of course it had to be brought up, the thing was everywhere.

Arthur didn’t seem to notice though, as he kept thinking out loud over the whole thing.

“Why would you let a princess out into the word without any protection at all in the first place? Anything could happen to her, how can they even be sure that she’s still alive?” And so on, at some point Edda just completely zoned out.

After dinner Edda went on trying to cobble together somewhere Arthur could sleep, piling whatever spare blankets, pillows and cloths. Arthur expressed a want to help, but Edda was not comfortable yet with having him dig around her stuff so she just had him help carrying the things she found, which seemed to work just fine with him.

Soon enough she found herself wishing the dwarf a good night as she went to bed herself. Finally alone with her thoughts her paranoia started to spark up over the whole thing. The idea of having a self proclaimed “adventurer” at her home at a time where young noblemen and princes where drafted to search for her felt a bit iffy, but she pushed the thoughts back. The dwarf clearly had a bit of an ego, so he would have probably told her that he was a prince or nobleman if that was the case. ‘What if he tries to tattle you out for the fame?’ Her mind asked, she pushed this away also. For that to be the case he would have to find out about it first, and it was not like she would let him find out about it in the first place. Also it wasn’t like she hadn’t had people sleep over before. It’s going to be fine. It’s going to be fine.

It is going to be fine.

All things considered she slept pretty well after that, or at least she did until she found herself awake in the middle of the night.

‘Thirsty, drink’, her brain ordered, and her body sluggishly followed. Unlocking the door to her room and following the wall to get to the kitchen in the pitch darkness. God she really needed just to put some water in here room in the case of emergencies like this, she couldn’t see a thing.

Feeling the cabinet that was opposite the kitchen sink she carefully turned herself around with her arms stretched out in-front of her. And then she touched something.

Something warm, alive and tall. A human.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have some sketches of Harriet/Edda here: https://cookieeks-art.tumblr.com/post/622613488299360256/just-some-sketches-of-the-main-character-aka-an  
> https://cookieeks-art.tumblr.com/post/629711717120737280/since-i-coloured-a-sketch-of-edda-i-felt-like


	2. In which Miss Edda learns about a curse

Edda let out a startled shout and so did the human. She tried to swing at them, but missed and stumbled right into them as an effect. She could feel how large the persons body was, which did not help her growing panic over the situation.

“Who are you!? What are you doing in here!? How did you get in here!?” She said as she tried to back away from him.

“Calm down it’s me!” The man shouted back in a familiar voice.

“Who!!!??? I don’t remember letting in a grown man into my house!!!” She started searching with her hands for something to protect herself with.

“It’s me Arthur!!!”

“Do you think I’m an idiot!? You may sound somewhat like him, but you are clearly not a dwarf!!” She backed, and almost tripped into the fire place. Her hand found the fire stick above it, and pointed it at the darkness.

“I’m not a dwarf right now, but I am him!”

There was a bit of clarity in Edda’s head as she smacked the fire stick against the fire place, whichstarted a magical fire that threw light over the room.

“If you won’t tell me I’ll just have to see for myself-“ She looked to where the man seemingly had been mere seconds ago, and there stood Arthur, the dwarf.

“What.” Was the only thing she could utter as she searched for any sign of the human man she very clearly had felt, who she had touched. She couldn’t see him anywhere.

“Oh finally, you’ve calmed down.” Arthur seem to let out a sigh of relief.

Edda felt like she was going insane. “Where did he- He was right there? What the?” She stumbled back against the fireplace.

“Hey, you okay?” Arthur took a step forward with his hand held up. “You don’t have to be scared I’m not going to hurt you.”

She was barely listening as her head slowly but the pieces together.

“That _was_ you, wasn’t it?” She said while looking up at him. “How?”

“Well, long story short, I used to be this big, strong, or well stronger than now, and incredible hero, that you may or may not have heard of, and now I’m not that,” he took a pause after looking down at himself. “And I wasn’t green.”

“That explains absolutely nothing,” she leaned forward dragging a hand through her hair, trying to sort her thoughts. “Is it like some sort of curse? But then why where you clearly not a dwarf just now?”

“Curse is definitely what I would call it.” Arthur seemed to scowl a bit as he thought about it.

“It can’t be the fact that it’s night can it? Because it’s still night right now. Then why-“

“Hey, Hey, Hey! Calm down, this is my curse to deal with, you don’t need to worry about the details.” He scurried up to her his hands up as of to calm her down.

She slid down to sit on the floor, while breathing deeply.

“Sorry,” she said looking at him “I’m not usually like this, the last week has just been very overwhelming, and you have to admit that it’s pretty confusing and scary to just bump into what seemed to be a large burglar in the middle of the night.”

“You thought I was a burglar?” Arthur said, looking absolutely horrified.

“Well, yeah. What would you think if you suddenly bumped into a person you for sure knew wasn’t supposed to be there? Hell, you could have been some sort of murderer for all I knew.” She tried make her words sound less harsh by speaking in a softer tone but she wasn’t sure if it was working.

Arthur’s eyes where wide as he looked at her, seemingly unsure how to deal with what she had said.

“Look,” she steadied herself against the fireplace, “I think we’re both a bit out of it right now, also I’m really thirsty, so let me put on some tea. I have this type that does wonders for bad nerves.”

Arthur backed away a little as she started to stand up, his arms moving a little as if he wanted to help her, but not seemingly being able to muster up the courage to go trough with it.

Edda just shot him an awkward smile as she shook the wrinkles out of her nightgown, and walked over to the kitchen, which she now could see better with the light of the fireplace. She pulled out a chair for him by the table before starting to prepare the tea. The chair creaked signalling that he had sat down on it. 

The silence hung over them like a thick fog.

“So,” Edda turned around and leaned on the dish bench, letting the tea heat up, “Feel like doing some small talk first, or should we just enter the deep end immediately?”

He looked up at her, having stared down at the floor the entire time while sitting there. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you, that was the last thing I would want.”

“Oh,” she let out a short nervous laugh “Don’t worry about that, water under the bridge, as they say.” She gestured around aimlessly with her right arm. “Just, please tell me next time you, decide to wander around in the dark of night.”

She lowered her hand a bit. “May I ask what you where doing up so late by the way? Oh, dear god I have so many questions right now, but let’s start with that one.”

“Though I heard something outside the window, and I needed to see what it was.” He said, still a bit tense, but way calmer than before.

“Ah,” Edda snapped her fingers “It was probably just the arms trying to get you outside again.” She turned around again to check the now warm tea. “They’re really persistent bastards like that.”

Lifting the kettle away from the heat she poured the tea into two separate mugs she had prepared. “I remember hearing noises from them occasionally the first weeks I stated living here as well, I guess they wanted to take a new shot at you since you apparently aren’t familiar with them from before.”

She put his mug in front of him on the table, before sitting down on the opposite side. “Taste it, you have my promise that it isn’t poison.”

He shot her a befuddled look.

“A joke.” She said awkwardly in return, before taking a sip out of her tea.

He took a sip of the tea as well, and as put the mug back on the table he looked up at her again. “How long has you lived here Miss? You seem very calm about those monsters outside, weirdly calm.”

“Oh,” she said, not really expecting the be one one answering questions. “Well, a few years I guess, and I mean so long as I stay inside they can’t get to me, so I don’t really see a reason to worry to much about them.” She leaned back a bit in the chair “I mean don’t get me wrong, they have the capacity to be very dangerous, but they aren’t the hardest creatures to avoid, if you know what your doing, and also while they are absurdly persistent they are very bad at adapting to pretty much anything besides being straight on attacked, not to mention that they are kinda dumb to be honest?”

He squinted at her, “You said before that you the entire house covered in charms because of how dangerous the forrest is.”

“Yeah, but that’s every house that is in the middle of a forrest! All things considered this is a pretty nice place to stay.” She said shrugging.

“Are you telling me that it’s normal to plaster charms all over your damn house if you live in the woods?”

“Are you telling me it isn’t?! What sort of houses the woods have you seen?!” She was admittedly getting a bit heated over the conversation before she realised just how far they where straying away from the topic she originally wanted to discuss.

“Ok, look I admit that I haven’t seen many that weren’t a hideout for a witch and maybe that’s not the sort of houses a innocent bystander like you would live in but,” he was still talking.

“Uh- even a witch would have the decency to have protection charms, _especially a witch_ , what are you even-,” she leaned back a bit to take a breath, this was getting a bit out of hand, better reel it back in a bit.

“Forget it,” she said exasperatedly “Let’s get back to the whole curse thing.”

“What, What is there to say about it?” he said “I was once a big strong human, now I am a small green dwarf, that’s about it.” He took another, more confident, chug of the tea.

“Yeah, but how does it work?” she leaned forward a little, she had heard of humans being cursed to look like different people or creatures before, it is after all a pretty basic curse all things considered, but there was usually always a meaning to the madness.

The swan turns into back into a princess in the moonlight, the prince cursed to look like a frog gets saved by a princess kiss, but this curse was unlike anything she had really seen before. Arthur did strike her as some sort of foreigner, with all his brashness towards charms and strange assumptions about houses in the woods. It was quite possible that his curse was put on by some magic creature or human of a kind she had never seen before outside of her books. And oh boy, did it spark an interest.

“What is the factor behind you turning back to a human? How do you break the curse? How did you even get it in the first place?” She found herself leaning forward more and more with each question.

“Whoa whoa whoa!” Arthur held his hands up in front of him as if warding of her questions. “Why do you wanna know so much about it?”

She sat back a bit with a huff, maybe she was coming off as to eccentric, she did have a tendency to do that sometimes.

“Look,” she said “I study magic, you have been cursed, which is a form of magic, which makes it a bit of an interest of me to understand it. Right?”

He looked a bit suspiciously at her. “Go on.”

“Look there’s a possibility that once I fully grasp whatever you’re cursed with, I can reverse engineerit and, you know uncurse you.” She gestured around a bit with her hands trying to get her point across.

“You mean you can figure out how to break the curse in another way?” His eyes widened a bit.

“Yes! But I need to get some sort of understanding of it first!” Then she fully registered all that he had said. “Wait, there is a known way to break it? What is-“

“A kiss from the most beautiful woman in the world.”

What.

“What sort of- how to you even begin-“ she leaned back in an attempt to register what he had said. “A kiss, that’s fine, common even, but. The most beautiful woman in the world!? How do you even supposed to know when you’ve found her? There’s so many people I the world! How in earth are you supposed to-“

She took a big gulp of the tea, and slumped a bit against the chair. “Not to mention that beauty is incredibly subjective.” She massaged her forehead a bit.

“How on earth did you even get this ass of a curse in the first place?” she mumbled as she looked down at him. 

Arthur shifted a bit in his seat, having seemingly spent his time durning her rant just staring at her. “That’s, not important. But really you think you can find a cure?”

“After hearing the only suggested way to cure it, yeah I’ll try alright,” she sipped a bit more of her tea in a second attempt at calming herself down a bit. “The most beautiful woman in the world...” she mumbled under her breath. According to who? How would the curse know who was ‘most beautiful’? Absolutely absurd.

“A mate of mine did manage to cure himself,” Arthur started.

She almost chocked on her tea. “What? How?”

“Pretty sure he fell in love...” he said.

Huh.

“So it’s actually more of a ‘true loves kiss’ than one with a ‘beautiful woman’?” That would make a bit more sense, that didn’t mean she liked it that much more tough. The romantic love that was involved with the true loves kiss had always been a confusing thing to her, and just like ‘the most beautiful woman’ it seemed to her that people could never really tell for sure when they find it. Who’s to say if the person in-front of you is 100% the most beautiful women, who’s to say that the love experienced between two people really is some sort of idea of true or not.

“Eh,” she said “doesn’t matter, I’m going to see if I can find a easier way to break this curse.”

She stood up and went and grabbed a notebook that had been haphazardly thrown onto one of the bookshelf a few days earlier. She opened a drawer below the bookshelf and pulled out a pen.

Sitting back down by the table she opened the notebook and prepared her hand in a writing position.

“I’m just going to have to ask you a few questions and you have to answer them at the best of your abilities.”

She was going to break the shit out of this curse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that I’m getting better at writing Arthur, it’s kinda weird because he hasn’t done anything absurdly overconfident and all that yet. Which I’m mostly doing because I felt like a lot of that stuff he did towards red shoes was because his fysical attraction towards her, don’t get me wrong I definelty think he’s someone that values his fysical strength, but I feel like he would tone it down a bit if the person he’s talking to isn’t someone he’s aiming to impress. Idk. I am planning (and hoping) to have him act more like he was when we saw him in the movie later on.
> 
> I did however have an idea to add on that he said the line about kissing the most beautiful princess in a bit of a mocking tone towards the curse itself, which does feel like something he would kinda do, but I decided to not do that since it feelt like it would ruin the snappiness of the lines above and below it.
> 
> Anyway, enough rambling, thank you for reading this chapter! Feedback is appreciated. I have sketches of Edda on my art tumblr (https://cookieeks-art.tumblr.com/post/623167607524196352/so-since-i-posted-the-second-chapter-of-wayward), if that’s of interest for you.  
> Have a nice day! :)


	3. In which there’s a visit to the town

Edda wondered a bit why Arthur refused to tell her the how or why behind him getting the curse, the only thing he had told her during the interrogation was that it had been a fairy behind it. He had tried to explain the how in terms of how the curse impacted him, that it was about being seen, and that he looked like a human when he wasn’t seen. That definitely explained him turning human in the dark. She hoped he hadn’t seen the way her eyes had lit up with excitement as he explained it to her, it was just so fascinating. She just couldn’t help it.

It wasn’t like she didn’t feel somewhat bad for him. She did. It was just, hard for her to show it. Hopefully her offering her help with his curse showed that she cared.

They had gone back to bed after she filled out half a page of her notebook with what she knew. And that morning she found that he still looked a bit down like before. Edda wasn’t very good with emotions, especially negative ones, but seeing Arthur look like that made her wanna do something to lift his spirits.

“So, Arthur,” she said to him as they sat across from each other by the table, eating breakfast. “Is there a story that comes with your sword?”

She had observed from yesterday that he had enjoyed bragging about his previous feats as an adventurer, or well hero. While she had considered asking him about his feats in general, she feared the possibility of it dragging up memories about his life before the curse, which he clearly seemed to long for. Also she had seen that the sword for some strange reason had a lump on it’s side and she was genuinely interested in why on Earth it was like that.

It seemed like she had hit jackpot as his eyes almost immediately widened in excitement.

“Of course It does, it’s the most powerful sword in the world that can only be handled by a man of great strength and willpower! Excalibur!” There was a certain smugness to him as he stood up on the chair and unsheathed the sword for her to see. And she could now see that the lump that she had seen trough the sheath was a chunk of rock.

“Huh, isn’t Excalibur that sword that’s stuck in a mountain and can only be pulled out by a king or something like that?” She had heard about the sword from before when she was doing some reading on enchanted items, though to be honest she didn’t remember many details that clearly besides it’s name. “That sounds pretty impressive.”

Arthur seemed to revel in the praise she gave him, puffing put his chest a bit and flexing his arms. “Impressive is one word for it, you could also call it spectacular! Majestic! Awe-inspiring!”

She snorted softly at him, he looked kinda stupid like that, but it seemed like the topic was working in making him feel better from last night. Also, his boasting was a little bit... Cute? Shaking off the strange thought she returned to the topic at hand.

“But why is there a rock stuck to it? I’ve never heard of it having that? Doesn’t it make it heavier to swing?” She asked, genuinely interested.

“Oh,” He seemed a bit caught of guard by her question. “That’s- It came off with the sword! Yeah, I pulled it out with such strength that it broke the rock and this piece got stuck to it. It’s still works perfectly fine, and well if it’s heavier then I haven’t noticed.”

It was obvious that he was lying about some aspect of the story, but Edda could in all honestly not say exactly what due to just how little she really knew about the sword itself. So she just let out a small snort and smiled about his once again probably exaggerated story.

The rest of the breakfast passed with both of them being in pretty high spirits, Arthur now seemingly having temporary forgotten about the incident that night in light of getting to brag about his sword, and Edda just happy that the gloom that he had covered the house in was gone. There was of course another thing that made Edda happy, the excitement over getting to start looking into Arthur’s curse.

They left for the town as early as the arms had made it possible, with the sun shining trough the thick leaves of the trees and a slight wind occasionally pushing her hair into her face. While the big agenda of the day was the library, where she would be able to start looking into the curse, she also knew that there was a store on the way to the library where she needed to pick up some supplies for her magic work. The thing specifically on her mind was getting some material for a protection charm for Arthur, she wasn’t sure how he had managed to survive so long without one, but she guessed it was possible that he hadn’t been here long enough to realise his folly, it was also fully possible that he just had the dumbest luck.

Speaking of Arthur, the dwarf (or should she say man?), had been happily chattering on their walk into the town, still cheery after their morning conversation. She had tried to listen to what he had to say, but most of it once again sounded like him bragging about himself, so she found herself zoning away as he babbled on, his voice turning out to be pretty comforting white noise. She felt a bit bad about not really listening to him as he was clearly really into what he was saying, but then again he never seemed to notice that she wasn’t listening, so maybe it didn’t really hurt anyone that she wasn’t really listening.

I should probably still try to make more of an effort, she thought to herself. She dragged herself onto full consciousness as her eyes caught the sight of the craft and magic supply store.

“Ah, there’s out first stop of the day.”

Arthur stopped talking a bit, before quizzically asking her, “I’m sorry miss, our first stop?”

She froze a bit, then she turned to properly look at Arthur. “Sorry, did I forget to tell you about what we where going to the town for?” It wasn’t a completely impossible thing to happen, she did tend to do most things on her own nowadays, maybe she had gotten so used to it that she just forgot that she would have to discuss her plans with the other person involved in them.

“To find another cure to my,” he lowered his voice a bit so that none of the townsfolk would hear him, “curse.”

She lifted her eyebrow at his whispering.

“Well, Yes. But did I not tell you any of the details? Did- did you never ask about any of the details?” She didn’t want to blame him for being in the dark, but part of her wondered why he would just follow her not knowing wherever they where going.

“I figured that you knew what you where doing and that you would tell me when it got important for me to know.” He looked at her as if his answer made complete sense, as if she couldn’t very well have led him into a death trap where she willing. Her stomach turned at the thought.

Edda sighed. “I, if I forget to tell you where we are going next time please ask me.”

“Okay then, care telling me why are we going to the store and not the library.”

She gladly explained why for him, he nodded a bit, but not before grumbling something about not needing a charm, which Edda promptly ignored as she stepped into the store.

The store was pretty small, with two walls covered in materials and crafting supplies that did either not grow locally or simply wasn’t available in the usual stores in the town. Non of the materials where magical on their own, but could be when combined with the right other materials.

Taking out her notebook she stated to collect the materials that she had written down that morning.

Some flakes of silver (buying big chunks was a bit out of her budged at the moment and the flakes worked just as well in her opinion), some scraps of steel (probably sold to them by the towns old blacksmith), and some dried Catsfoot. She made sure to pic up some extra small bottles and some tread while she was already there.

Arthur hung out just besides her as she picked up what she needed, looking incredibly bored. As they went up to the register his head seemed to perk up.

“Is that dragon teeth?”

Edda’s head shot up to look at what he was referring to, and sure as the sun there was a small collection of dragon fangs.

“Incredible isn’t it,” said Aspen, the clerk behind the cash register, “haven’t seen genuine pieces of a dragon in ages, but when the hubby was out at the other town by the border he meet some merchants selling this stuff.”

Edda was almost breathless as she looked upon the fangs, almost completely forgetting everything else around her. “Absolutely incredible...”

“Cost a good bit of money of course, but that is worth to considering it’s rarely and longevity,” Aspen smiled at Eddas awe.

The mention of money shook Edda out of her stupor, as it prompted her to look at the price tags and cringe a bit. Yeah, there was no way she had the money for that.

“Wait,” Arthur spoke up “what do you mean it’s rare?”

Edda looked down at Arthur in surprise, before she remembered that he wasn’t from here. “Well, Dragons aren’t especially common around here, so any pieces of them are also, you know, rare.” She took a short pause. “Are they really common from where you’re from?”

“Oh,” Aspen bent over the desk to look down at Arthur. “It is a tourist we got here? Didn’t know you did tours as well Miss Edda.”

“No, I’m not a tour guide.” Edda shot them a slightly annoyed look, which didn’t seem to bother them that much, before turning back to Arthur. “Is there a lot of dragons?”

“Yeah,” Arthur seemed a bit thrown off by the whole thing. “They show up a lot, to you know cause chaos and mayhem and all that.”

Eddas eyes got a bit wider as she hunched down to be at eye level with him, “Have you seen one in real life? Are they that common?” She was aware that dragons were more common on other parts of the island, she didn’t always live under a rock, but there was something different about hearing it get confirmed by a living breathing person and not just a book.

“Of course I have,” He seemed to slowly get back to his more boisterous self as he spoke.  
“I have fought with more dragons than I can count on my hands.”

Aspen let out a short laugh. “Funny little guy you got there Edda, somehow manages to fit all the stereotypes of a foreigner, he even fights dragons!” They slapped the desk a bit in amusement.

“In all seriousness though, you better keep an eye on him.” They made hard eye contact with Edda “With all the foreigners showing up here to find the princess, it’s only a matter of time before they try to pick a fight with the local Skogsrå, and you don’t want to be involved with something like that.”

The mention of the princess dragged her back into reality.

“Right.” She stood up to pay for the materials she had picked up, putting them on the desk. “The princess thing really has spread over the whole island hasn’t it.”

“Oh It have,” said Aspen as they started counting up her total. “Just today a whole bunch of Noblemen showed up here insisting that the princess was hiding somewhere here.”

Edda felt her blood turn ice cold, they where here? Looking for her?

“Do you think she’s here?” asked Arthur from behind her.

“Oh,” said Aspen “She’s definitely not, my sister has the nose of a bloodhound when it comes to rumours and gossip, if there secretly was a princess here, she would know.”

Edda was barely listening as they talked only being able to focus on paying for her goods and then walking out of the store mumbling a goodbye.

Oh, god where they going to find her after all this time? How did they even know where she was? This couldn’t possibly be a fluke.

Then she felt a light tugging at her skirt.

“Hey are you okay? You look as if you swallowed something bad.” It was Arthur, looking up at her with what looked like concern in his eyes.

She gave him an awkward smile, “I’m fine, I just-“ what was she even going to tell him, if wasn’t like she could tell the truth. “I remembered a bad memory, and it must have taken me out a bit.”

“Must have been a really bad memory if it made you shut down like that,” he looked around a bit before making eye contact with her again. “You, wanna talk about it?”

She grinned softly at him. “Nah, you don’t have to hear about my troubles. We’re here to fix what ales you, not me, remember?”

He shrugged a bit. “The offer still stands whenever you feel like it.”

“That’s very sweet of you.”

Next stop was the library, and it was on the way to it that Edda stated to ponder over a possible escape plan. She couldn’t just leave Arthur in the dust after promising to help him, she could probably not explain the real the situation either. Maybe she could make up a lie about people hunting her because they suspect she’s a witch? That would feel really scummy though, considering how many people accused of being a witch has died...

The library caught Eddas eyes and she inwardly sighed, maybe she could clear her mind a bit if she would dunk herself in some research and distract herself from her predicament. Who knows maybe breaking the curse is easier than she might think and she could finish this this day and then focus on her escape later.

As fast as they got inside the building Edda made a beeline to where the books on spells and curses was located. It was in the section for books on magic which also had a nice table to work at close by, which Edda immediately started making use of, dumping loads of book that looked vaguely related to what she was looking for.

Arthur seemed to immediately sprint up to her and offer his help in carrying books to the table, she told him there was no real need since she had gotten pretty good at carrying heavy books after studying at the library and having to carry some real weighty books for so long. This seemed to bum him out a little bit, so she told him that he could help by looking for anything on transformative curses in some of the books, which he tried but soon gave up at, eventually falling asleep on his chair.

Edda let him sleep, it was possible that he hadn’t gotten that much sleep that night, so she could hardly blame him. It didn’t seem like she had really needed the extra eyes anyway, since the books she could find seemed to give her nothing that really could help either way. The amount of times she had seen kisses being recommended as a cure had almost made her completely loose it. Also she had slowly found that it was very few books in the library that covered curses done by the sort of fairy that seemed to have cursed Arthur.

Maybe she was just looking in the wrong section at the library? She got up to see if she could ask the librarian for help, only to remember Arthur’s sleeping form. She couldn’t leave him alone while he was sleeping could she? No, she reached over to him and gently shook him.

He awoke with a startled shout, almost falling out of the chair if she hadn’t caught him, grabbing him by the arm.

“Ah, I’m awake! What’s going on!?” He seemed to immediately be in fighting mode, until he noticed her grip on him.

“Whoa there soldier, at ease, where in a library,” she joked “I just wanted to tell you that I’m going to ask the librarian for some help, so you didn’t have to wake up with me just gone.”

He stood up in his chair as she let go of his arm. He seemed weirdly nervous as he cleared his throat. “You want he to keep an eye on the books while your gone?”

“I mean, if you want to sure,” she said, “I shouldn’t be gone for too long, just stay here.”

She didn’t miss the big smile on his face as she turned to find the closest librarian, it was kinda cute how happy he seemed to become any time he got to help someone.

There was that word again cute... that was the second time she had thought of that word in association with Arthur, maybe it was because he was so small and round. The thought made her feel a bit ill, she wasn’t infantilising him was she? She should try to stop with these thoughts before she says something bad out loud.

The closest librarian turned out to be Ulf, who was the one by the reception desk. Edda explained her problem with finding the right books, Ulf nodded along and turned over to a big enchanted book that was by the reception as well to look for the placement of fitting books. After about ten minutes of looking he turned back to her.

“I’m sorry Miss Edda, but it seems like you already have found all the books on that topic that we have in this location,” he looked apologetically at her. “If you want to get any of the books from the other locations we could sent out mail for them to send us them, but that will take a few days for them to receive our message and send anything back.”

Then something clicked in Eddas head, a new escape plan starting to hatch.

“Is it possible that you could give me a list of the locations that have these books?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for your patience! Things got a bit out of hand when I was writing this and the next chapter!
> 
> Edit, 18/10 2020:  
> The librarian does now have a name


	4. In which a plan forms (and the author finally gets to introduce some magic items)

Edda had to physically stop herself from her excitement shining trough as she returned to Arthur with the list in hand.

“I have good and bad news bud,” she said as she approached the table covered in books. “This library don’t have all the books I need to figure out the curse, but it has given me a list of locations that, possibly, does.”

Arthur looked up at her possibly a bit bummed that she hadn’t found a way to cure him, but also a bit intrigued by what she said.

“You mean that where going to have to travel to these other libraries?”

She laughed slightly, just stifling her cackle, as she sat down. “Yeah, turns out that old Aspen was on to something with the tour guide thing.” She held out the list for him to read. “Because I’m going to have to give you a bit of a tour of this kingdom as we walk from library to library.”

He looked a bit over the locations on the list before looking up at her.

“Are all of these inside of the kingdom?”

“Yeah, the libraries system only pertain to the libraries in the kingdom, so they can’t really tell us that much about any libraries outside of it,” She shrugged a bit. “I mean, unless you can tell me of any locations that we might find any relevant books in outside of this kingdom.” It would be pretty useful, since she couldn’t be sure for how different the collections would be in other kingdoms libraries and if there could be anything useful in them.

However Arthur just shook his head. “I could maybe ask a pal of mine if he knew any?”

“That would help,” but she did not dare to stay at the town for to long to wait for any mail so, “let’s just start out looking in this kingdoms libraries first ok?”

“Alright,” Arthur stood up in his chair again to put them both at eye level. “Where to first Miss?”

“This library does have maps, but,” she looked down at the table, “maybe we should clear the table first.”

Arthur glanced at the table to before nodding. “Right.”

They spent the rest of the time at the library, after clearing the table of books and putting them back to their correct spots, planning out the course they where going to take.

The list she had had three different locations on it, Hävelösa, Bergleva and Endeslättaren. The closest to where they where was Hävelösa, so it was quickly decided that it would be the place they go to first. The other two was after that pretty much equally close to Hävelösa, but since Edda knew that Endeslättaren had a much larger library than Bergleva, they should go there first, and then look at Bergleva if they found nothing at Endeslättaren.

Happy about the plans they put the library map in it’s place (Edda did have a travel map at home after all), and exited the library.

It was a bit past three as their eyes meet the outside sun again, they had been in the library longer than they both seemed to realise and while Edda had initially planned to go tell her landlord and the lady in charge of the weekly market of her temporary departure, they found themselves taking a short detour to get something to eat.

While waiting for their food from the local cafe, Arthur spotted framed autograph on the wall.

“You’ve had some famous person come by here before?” Then he squinted his eyes a bit at it, “Wait a tic, isn’t that-“

“Oh, yes it’s from one of the F7!” The Lady behind the counter, Mrs Johannesson, said. “Our daughter was really into them when she was younger, so old Enon was kind enough to get an autograph from one of them on one of his travels.”

Edda rolled her eyes a bit, she remembered the whole F7 craze like it was yesterday, people were nuts over them. Of course it was a pretty short lived craze considering F7 tendency towards what could be seen as pointless violence, as well as the fact that they never ever sat a single foot inside the kingdom.

Personally Edda hadn’t really cared to much about the whole thing, it happened during a period of her life when she had been completely obsessed with a collection of books, an obsession that had pretty much stopped any possible interest in the group of heroes that could have possibly existed in it’s tracks. Plus like she said it was a pretty short lived craze so she never really got the time to get that invested.

“I see she was a fan of prince Arthur.” Arthur said as he tore his eyes away from the autograph. “Not bad taste.”

Mrs Johannesson laughed a bit at his words. “Oh, she was obsessed with him!”

Edda had started to tune out the conversation, it wasn’t like she could add anything to it anyway, she knew next to nothing about the F7 and she wasn’t exactly feeling like being a buzzkill, considering how into the conversation both of them where.

But then she was forcefully dragged into it.

“Hey, Miss Edda did you have a favourite member of F7?” Mrs Johannesson asked as Arthur looked curiously at her.

She glanced to the side awkwardly. “Not really?”

“Why not?” Arthur sounded a bit confused at her answer.

“Look, I couldn’t remember any of their names even if my life depended on it, which makes it pretty hard to name a favourite.” she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“You could describe the one you like?” Arthur offered.

“Don’t you think I would have bothered remembering at least one name if I liked one of them.” She raised her eyebrow at him, why did he care that much?

“Well, I, uh-“ before Arthur got the chance to answer their food came and Edda took the chance to change the subject.

Or at least she was about to try to.

“How could you not like the F7? They’re the most famous heroes on the island?” Arthur was really not giving up this interrogation.

She sighed. “Maybe where you’re from they are, but here they’re mostly an old fad that has been over for a long while.”

“What, How can a group of heroes be considered a fad? Is it because they’ve been missing for a year?” Arthur looked like he was about to lose his mind.

“Well first of, their heroics is really just them beating the crap out of anything that looks vaguely threatening or non human, which doesn’t really fly that well over here. The only reason they really got any attention here, now don’t quote me on this I was never into them in the first place, seemed to be their looks. Also I can’t speak for everyone but I never heard that they’ve been missing.” She absentmindedly ate her food in between her sentences.

Noting how quiet he had been she looked up to him just looking at her with eyes full of confusion and shock. She just looked back awkwardly.

“Let the food quiet our mouths,” she mumbled as she returned to her food unsure for how to continue the conversation, and Arthur seemed to follow suit.

After the food Edda got to do her small errands before they finally returned back to her hut, the walk to which was mostly done in silence. The sun was slowly closing in on the horizon at that point, so they both decided that it would probably be best if they started their road trip next morning.

Edda was starting to feel the weird tension in the air again, so she once again asked Arthur to tell her about his adventures. Like before it seemed to work like a charm, him becoming much less gloomy as he spoke about dragons.

This time Edda found herself listening a bit more and asking questions, all the while she was working on Arthur’s charm.

“I’ve fought dragons bigger than entire castles! There was this one that was threatening to destroy an entire kingdom, it had these scales stronger than steel and breathed invisible fire!” Arthur tried to mimic the dragon, holding his hand up as if they where claws and making the nastiest faces he could manage.

“Really, how did you defeat the dragon then?” She smiled with amusement, only being able to spare a few glances at Arthur as she carefully poured the silver flakes into the bottle in which she had already put a bit of steel into.

“Well, I went up to the dragons head and held it close with my bare hands! And some chains. Then when it couldn’t breath fire anymore I stabbed it in the throat! There was less scales there.”

Edda just shook her head at him as he went on. She poured in some of the Catsfoot in the bottle and then carefully sealed it. Taking out her knife she cut the thread and bound it around the small bottles throat, and as a final touch she took some steel wire and bound it on top of the thread.

Arthur, who seemed to have turned quiet after she pulled out the knife, walked up to look at the charm in her hand. “Doesn’t look like any charm I’ve seen before.”

“Funny, you gave me the impression that you’ve never seen a charm in your entire life,” she joked lightly. “But yes, this is a protection charm, not all charms has the same things inside them, since you mostly have to make do with what you have at hand, but this one should work just fine.”

She held up the bottle by the thread, holding it like a pendant or necklace. Arthur stepped closer and seemed to slightly lower his head.

Taking his cue, Edda grinned a bit before clearing her throat. Putting on her best kingly voice she bellowed out. “Great knight, please accept this medal of honour and gratitude, for saving this kingdom from that ghastly dragon!” She lowered down the charm over his head dramatically while stifling her laughter.

Arthur’s shoulders shook a bit, seemingly also just containing his laughter. Feeling a bit extra, Edda finally let go of the charms with a flourish of her arms, letting the charm bounce a little against his chest as it hung around his neck.

“This kingdom is eternally thankful!” She lifted her arms up dramatically, before letting them unceremoniously drop. “Yeah, that’s all I got.” She laughed lightly under her breath.

Arthur fingered a bit at the charm, joining in on her laughter. “What did that even come from?” He said a bit breathlessly.

“Hey, you where the one who started it, I was just expanding on it.” She lightly showed his shoulder. “Anyway, I should probably start packing for tomorrow.”

“Right,” Arthur said as he rearranged the charm to be inside his shirt. “You want any help with that or?”

“Nah, I’m fine,” she stood up from her chair. “You can just take it easy in the meanwhile, or I don’t know study the map if you feel like it.” She shrugged a bit and went into her room and closed the door behind her.

In her room she did exactly what she said she would to, pack. And a bit more.

She pulled out her small wardrobe and started going over what she would need to bring with her, some extra pairs of clothes, a fair bit of her charms and salves could probably be useful, she would definitely need to bring at least one notebook. She stopped dead in her tracks as she felt cool glass under her fingertips as she dug trough her drawer.

Right, she should probably bring that too.

She pulled out a light blue glass bottle adorned with a few ribbons and gems, it was a message-in-a-bottle. The bottle was contacted to another bottle owned by her parents and it was trough it that their letters was sent trough. It had been the answer to her parents wanting to keep in contact trough mail, and her not wanting to give them her address. It was a bit of a magical middle ground that way, she thought.

Either way, she didn’t want to know what would happen now if she just suddenly stopped answering and receiving mail from them, so it was probably best to bring it with her.

Looking down where she found the bottle there was a package of cloth. She also knew exactly what that was, the royal ring of princess Harriet. She was less sure of why she still had it than the bottle. When she had left the castle she never remembered packing it, but then when she was packing up her stuff she found it nestled with her clothes.

A part of her suspected it was her mother, or maybe her sister, who slipped it in her bags while she wasn’t looking, but whoever the person behind it was, she was still stuck with it.

When she had first seen the ring in her back she had wanted to chuck it into the distance to never see it again, but she never found herself able to. Throwing away something specifically made for you just felt wrong even if it represented a you that wasn’t you anymore, someone had still spent hours of their time creating it so just haphazardly getting rid of it felt, ungrateful.

Well, it wasn’t like she could leave such a item at the hut unguarded for so long that she would probably be away. She had to bring it with her as well.

She let out a sigh as she picked up the cloth package and dropped it into the pile that was forming for what to pack down.

As she continued packing she realised that she probably should prepare some clothes more fitting for a road trip than her dark robes, and she quickly threw together a set of lighter walking clothes. Since the skirts she had didn’t have any pockets she went and pulled out a belt she kept in her drawer, on which she could a small bag to effectively act as a pocket.

This made her realise another thing she probably should bring with her that was in the same drawer. Her dagger.

Who knew what she would run into during the trip so it was always important to be better safe than sorry. Plus she could always use it as a torch since she had inscribed it with a fire spell, similar to the one she had for the fire place, but with an extra kick in that it also could throw fire at whatever she pointed at. Of course it wasn’t a spell that lasted for ever, occasionally she would have to make sure to oil it with a special oil for the magic to work. Speaking of which, she should probably pack some of the oil as well just in case...

The rest of the packing was relatively uneventful, and honestly so was the rest of the evening after it, she made dinner, they ate, they talked a bit about the plans for the morning and then they went to bed eager so soon leave the town behind them on order to cure a curse, or alternatively to escape being dragged back into the life of a princess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this double update!  
> Edit: Here’s a link to the sketches I did for chapter 3 & 4!  
> https://cookieeks-art.tumblr.com/post/623892397228785664/some-sketches-for-wayward-and-edda-since-i-just
> 
> Edit, 18/10 2020:  
> The “Lady at the counter” now has a name.


	5. In which there’s an encounter with a strange rock

Edda woke up early that morning to do the final things she would need to do before the departure. If her calculations where correct Hävelösa would be about two days away from their current location, which meant it was in their best interest to have some food prepared beforehand, as well as things to cook food with in the case that if would come to it. 

There was also things to prepare beforehand in case of having to sleep in the woods because they somehow wasn’t able to reach an inn before the night fell, which was never the ideal scenario. Everyone in the kingdom knew very well of the dangers that came with camping out in the woods, so far that there was almost an absurd amounts of inns operating just outside off any forested area, but even then the woods was known for sometimes taking longer to traverse than expected. If it weren’t for the fact that Arthur wanted to get to the town the fastest way possible and seemingly hadn’t yet grasped the magnitude of the possible danger they where putting themselves trough, she would have probably chosen to take the longer paths which didn’t cut trough the woods. 

Edda suspected that giving Arthur a protective charm wasn’t going to be the end of her having to stop him from almost getting himself killed due to what she at this point considered to be pure hubris. 

She pulled out the dried Catsfoot she had gotten the day before and started to ground it into powder, which she then poured into a medium sized bottle. It wasn’t much even as she grounded up all the Catsfoot she had bought, she would probably have to bring some amethyst as well as the pieces of steel she had on hand. The silver could also be brought along as well, but due to the form of the silver being small flakes she doubted it would be sound to use it for the purpose of creating a safe camping ground. They where going to walk on some non woods roads as well, maybe she could see if she could find some fresh John's wort in the way...

Right in the middle of her pondering, a voice piped up from behind her.

“You really went up as early as you said you would,” It as of course Arthur who had seemingly just awoken from his makeshift bed to wander over to her. He still looked a bit drowsy, and his hair was a mess.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t wake you up did I?” she had been trying to work as quietly she possibly could, not really liking the idea of waking someone up earlier than needed.

Arthur just waved and grinned at her. “Naw, don’t worry, I had to get up at one point or another right?”

He yawned and stretched his arms up, Edda found herself instinctually looking away as she realised that he was not wearing a shirt, and she did not want to look like she was ogling him. If they where going to travel together for around a week, than she would prefer if things wouldn’t get awkward between them. Their relationship would be strictly professional.

That also meant that the weird thoughts about him being cute had to go, now.

She slapped the sides to her face in a feeble attempt to purge any part of her brain that could possibly take part in any unprofessional thoughts towards Arthur. 

“Are you ok?” A slightly concerned Arthur asked. 

Right, that might have looked kinda weird. 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she gave a thumbs up to him, “I’ll get some breakfast out soon, I’ll just need to finish this up and pack it first.” 

“Ah, okay,” he said a bit slowly, “I’ll be doing a few reps in the meantime then? Just tell me if you need something.”

“Yeah yeah, I will,” she said only really half listening as she returned to her work, which she finished up in relative silence. She packed down the prepared containers of food, along with some dried meats wrapped In cloth, a big bag of dried Apple slices (the summer apples having just started to be sold at the market), and all the aforementioned materials for magic. And then, like she said, she stared to get out something for breakfast.

-

The time was just past six in the morning as Arthur and Edda took their leave from the hut, after that Edda had double checked that everything was as it should in the hut and that the door was properly locked after them.

Arthur had noticed that Edda had a tendency toward occasional paranoia, a side effects from living in such a dangerous forrest for so long he thought. He was still somewhat confused why Edda would willingly live there, in truth the only people he had ever known to live in small houses in the woods was witches. He didn’t think Edda was a witch though, he had been suspicious when he first had heard about her, but than again he had learned his lesson about accusing innocent people to be witches a long while ago. 

He looked up at her as he walked besides her, she was always so quiet unless directly spoken to, like she was constantly lost in thought. This time it looked like she was thinking really intensely about something, her eyebrows knitted together and mouth drawn into a straight line across her face.

“Is something bothering you Miss Edda?” His voice seemed to snap her out of her thoughts a bit as she turned to properly look at him.

“Eh, well,” she started, fumbling a bit over her words, “I was thinking about if I could find a special flower on the road where about to get on.” She vaguely gestured towards where the road lead out of the woods.

“A special flower?” He asked quizzically. “Is it a favourite of yours?”

She smiled a crooked smile at him. “Not exactly, but it is useful for healing and protection from bad forces.”

“Ah, so it’s for your magic?” Then a thought hit him. “Wait, why are you looking for more protection things? You’ve already given me a charm.”

She gave him a exhausted look. “If we have to set up camp in the forrest we are going to need more than just a charm, also you’ll never know when the ability to heal wounds will be useful.”

There was the paranoia again, sure he agreed with her that being in the woods at night could be dangerous, but he had his doubts that every forest they walked in would be like the one she lived in. Also he was there with Excalibur, and her little charm, ready to challenge any monster they came across, so there was really no need for her to be so worried.

He chuckled a bit to himself about the whole thing, but if these flowers would help her nerves then who was he to stop her. In fact...

“What does this flower look like? I could help you look for them if you want.” He said, watching as her eyes seemed to lit up a bit at this.

“Well,” she started, seemingly a bit unsure where to begin her description. “It’s a yellow flower with five petals on each flower head, it also has these yellow stamina that was a darker colour at the end making it look like has a bunch of brown dots around it’s petals.” As she spoke she happily gestured around with her hands, as if attempting to visualise what she was taking about in the air.

Arthur nodded along as she continued explaining the flowers appearance, in maybe a bit to much detail than he expected, but hey she was talking now, and it seemed like she completely had forgotten about what was troubling her just a few minutes ago.

“...and finally there’s the flowers leaves, they are usually in pairs of two on the opposite side of each other, and they also pretty notable for having these dark dots that makes it look like someone have tried to puncture them with a needle.” She stopped to let out a small laugh. “There’s actually some stories about how the flower got those holes because some trolls got sick of the good it brought humans and tried to make the ‘good’ bleed out of the flower by biting it’s leaves.”

“Oh,” He said “is it true?”

She shook her head. “Not sure. Maybe, but it doesn’t really matter considering it still is a very useful flower.”

As promised Arthur looked out for the flower as they walked down the open road, now no longer walking inside the forrest, but surrounded by open fields of grass. To his slight disgruntlement he couldn’t find a single one.

Edda would occasionally stop and pick something up from the corner of the road, but it never seemed to be the flower she had mentioned, one time she had shoot straight into the wild grass to dig up a few other yellow flowers by the root, Bloodroot she had called it, another healing flower apparently. Many of the things she had picked up by the wayside though wasn’t even flowers, they where just leaves.

“It’s Frogleaves,” she had enthusiastically said as he watched her happily remove the leafs from the ground with her knife, for the fifth time. “They are excellent for magic that involves meeting outer wounds and cuts!” 

Her flower picking ended as they once again entered the woods. 

Arthur had to admit he was a bit on the alert as they walked deeper in the woods, as the trees grew thicker and the road became thinner. He had instincts for danger and he had to admit that it was almost like he could feel eyes in the back of his neck as he walked. There was something, off, something that he hadn’t felt before when walking in the forrest where Edda lived. 

He found himself walking a bit closer to Edda, as well as constantly looking back, every time expecting to see someone or something, but never seeing a single soul. The second he did see something he would be ready to draw his blade at whatever it was that was out there.

“Hey, Miss Edda?” He turned back from once again looking over his shoulder. “Do you think something wrong with...”

He trailed off as he looked forward, where a giant boulder laid about fifty feet away from them on the road. Their surroundings was pretty flat and there was no sign of any mountains or cliffs where it could have come from.

“Well that wasn’t on the map,” he said trying to shrug of the very strange feeling he got from the stone. “Guess well just have to take the long way around it, huh?”

He was about to step of the road before Edda grabbed his arm.

“Don’t.” The words where soft, but had a strict edge to them. “Stay on the road.”

He was about to ask her how else they where supposed to round the boulder, before she sent him a serious look akin to the one she had had the first time they meet when she’d scolded him about protection charms.

“I’ll deal with it, you stay close to me and try not to start a fight with him.” She turned fully towards the rock and started approaching it. 

Start a fight with what? The boulder? Ok, now when he was thinking about it he could probably cut it in half given enough time and effort, was that what she was referring to?

Despite his internal complaints he found himself walking close behind Edda. Wondering if she was going to pull out some magic in order to remove it. Maybe she would make it levitate or something?

They stopped right in front of the stone.

To Arthur surprise the first thing Edda did was to give the boulder a curtsey, before she started to speak to it.

“Good evening sir, I hope I don’t bother you, but you are laying on a human road and I would be incredibly grateful if you where to move and allow me and my friend to continue our journey.”

Arthur looked from Edda to the unmoving rock, who wasn’t responding.

“I understand sir, that does sound incredibly awful, but please understand that me and my companion is in a bit of a hurry to leave these woods before the night falls.”

The boulder was still not responding. Edda’s eyebrows scrunched together together a bit as if it was.

“Please sir-“

Arthur took a hold of her arm and shook it a bit in an attempt to shake her out of whatever delusion she seemed to be in. 

“Miss Edda, you are talking to a big rock, I don’t know why you think it’s responding to you but I it isn’t!”

Edda seemed to do double take, before she shot an apologetic look towards the boulder.

“I’m sorry sir, just give me a second.” She turned to look a Arthur, with a bit of a confused look. “Arthur, do you not believe in trolls?”

Her question caught him a bit off guard. “Of course I believe in trolls, I can barley count the amounts of times I fou-“

“Arthur!” She hastily cut him off from finishing the sentence, and gestured towards the stone. “This man here is a troll.”

Arthur just shot a short glance to the rock to confirm that, yes, it was still an inanimate object.

“Edda, it’s a rock.” 

She sighed deeply as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Arthur, there’s some trolls, that usually goes by the title of stone trolls, that looks like a normal rock if the person who looks at them don’t believe that they exist.”

He didn’t feel that convinced by her explanation, which she seemed to notice as she hunched down to his eye level, and took a hold of his shoulder with one of her hands.

“Look, I was right about how the arms worked right?” 

He nodded at her, he could admit that she had seemed to know what she was talking about back then. 

“I couldn’t have possibly gone insanity from then to now, I know how things work here, so please believe me when I say, there’s a big troll that currently on the road and not a huge boulder.”

“Okay, Okay, I’ll believe you.” He held up his hands in surrender.

She pushed her lower lip out in a suspicious pout. “You don’t sound like you believe me...”

He laughed a bit at her. “I do, I do.” 

“Yeah, you’re not believing me.” She sent an disappointed look at him, before taking a deep breath. “Whatever, just, I’m not crazy, I am talking to a troll and-“

A rumbling sound cut her off and both of their heads snapped to the side to see the boulder roll away from the road and settle itself just by the roadside against a big tree. 

“How did-“ Arthur looked around in an attempt to find whatever could have caused the rock to move, but he found nothing. “Miss Edda, did you do that?”

He looked up at miss Edda who was looking transfixed at the rock, she shot a short glance to him as to signal that she’d heard him. After standing in silence for a few second, she did another curtsey towards the rock.

“Thank you sir, I’ll make sure to tell him that, have a nice evening.” She then turned towards Arthur. “He found your ignorance and arrogance very entertaining, so entertaining in fact that he found the strength to move from his position on the road.”

Arthur stared at her, if what she had said was true then...

He slowly turned his head towards where he knew the rock was supposed to be, and in it’s place sat a huge creature with long hair covered in moss, with big eyes the size of cartwheels and a mouth that was grinning from ear to ear. Staring straight at him.

Arthur let out a shout, his hand immediately going to the hilt of Excalibur, only to be stopped by Eddas quick hands.

“Arthur, what are you doing.” she hissed at him, her cheeks red. 

He was just about to answer her but he was cut off by the bellowing laugh from the stone troll.

“You companion is a feisty one, young human! One look at a troll and he’s ready for combat! Brings me back to when I was young!” The troll put his head in his humongous hand as she shook a bit from his deep belly laugh.

“Please forgive him sir,” Edda said as the sound of the trolls laughter started to fade, and as she was still holding Arthur in what seemed to be a death-grip. “He’s not from here!”

“I could tell that much young miss,” the troll rubbed his eyes to rid of the tears of laughter. “And do not worry his antics has put me in a good mood, though I hope he knows others might not be so kind.”

Arthur felt his blood freeze as the troll looked at him, not smiling anymore. Every instinct in his body was telling him to slay the beast that stood, or well, sat, before him, but Eddas grip on him told him otherwise. She had pulled him into her in further attempts to stop him from fighting the troll, and he could feel her uneven breaths as she held onto him. 

Then he realised, she had seemed perfectly calm talking to the troll before, her eyes had been clear and her voice had been steady. Now she it seemed like she was starting to panic... Like she had that night...

A pang of guilt shot trough him and he forced himself to ease his muscles and let go of his sword.

“I’ll make sure he understands that sir, I’m so sorry for how he’s acting.” Edda spoke to the troll. 

The troll smiled a big toothy smile once again. “You can keep calm human, I can tell you will. You look like a mother shielding her unruly child.” He laughed a bit again. “With how ignorant this boy has showed himself to be i can tell that you will have much work on your hands, I wish both of you good luck.”

Edda gave the troll yet another curtsey. “Thank you sir.” She lifted up Arthur in her arms and hurriedly stared walking down the path. 

Arthur, stunned into silence by her actions, said nothing as she held him with his head resting against her shoulder. He just thought, about how she even had dared to walk so close to that huge monster in the first place, how seemingly unfazed she had been about the conversation with the troll, before he had butted in. He was used to his presence bringing safety and happiness, and yet twice now it had just brought Edda panic and stress.

As he leaned onto her he made himself a silent promise that he would not let it happen a third time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who boy! So here’s my first attempt at writing outside of Edda’s perspective! I hope it didn’t feel like it came too out of left field. 
> 
> Also, the plants I mentioned in this chapters are real plants, but I did change the name of two of them since I didn’t fully like the English names I found. John’s wort is actually saint John’s wort (idk, I wasn’t ready to deal with the implications that Christianity was a thing in this fantasy word, but I might change it later on), and Frogleaf is “Plantago major”. (I got the name frogleaf because the Swedish name for it is Groblad, which I always misread as Grodblad, which translates into English as Frogleaf.)
> 
> Also also, this is the first chapter where I show a creature from folklore! The rock troll is mostly based on troll stories I remember from my childhood along with the ones my mother would tell me. The whole “you have to believe in trolls” thing was from my mother stories. 
> 
> Anyway! Thank you for reading this chapter! :)
> 
> Edit: I though I should post a link to the sketches I made for this chapter! :)  
> https://cookieeks-art.tumblr.com/post/624787869751558144/some-sketches-i-made-for-the-new-wayward-chapter


	6. In which Edda panics internally multiple times

Oh gods why did she pick him up, oh shit.

Edda’s mind raised as she power walked down the wooden path with Arthur in her arms. It had been a split second decision that had led her to pick him up, fuelled by the fear that he would fly towards the monster the moment she’d let go, and now she was feeling immense regret.

She was not a fan of having her personal space invaded and now she had been the one to do it to someone. The only reason she hadn’t let go of him yet was that her body had been put on auto pilot, also she had already carried him for a good while now to the point that part of her brain had just decided to go with the flow while the other part of her brain making incoherent screaming noises that was absolutely not helping the situation at all.

It was also not helping that he was very huggable. And warm. And also he had started to lean into her and she was sure what to do with that???

Edda wanted to scream.

This was not professional at all.

Her panicking thoughts was cut off by the voice of the person she was carrying.

“I’m sorry that I scared you again, Miss Edda,” he said.

The fact that he was talking right into her ear was not helping anything at all, if anything it was delaying her ability to even process the words he had spoken to her.

“Huh, Oh,” she said, trying to juggle the frustration she felt toward herself and the frustration she felt towards him almost initiating combat with a stone troll. “Just, don’t pull that shit again.”

“You have my word,” he said.

Ok, she needed to put him down, it was impossible for her to have any intelligent conversations with him if he was constantly breathing in her ear with that weirdly soothing voice of his.

Edda wanted to dunk her head into a bucket of cold water. She was _not_ going to be weird about his voice too! What was _wrong_ with her!?

“So,” he cleared his throat a bit. “When are you going to let me down?”

“Right!” She said, her want to be helpful overriding her chaotic mind. “Down you go.” She stopped and let Arthur slide down to stand on his own feet again.

“Alright,” Arthur looked up at her with a careful smile while swaying his arms a bit. “Should we see if we can still get to the in before sundown?”

“Yes,” Edda tried to hide her still somewhat frayed nerves with a finger gun. “Let’s do that.”

They did not reach the inn in time. The sun was just scraping the edge of the horizon when they realised that they probably shouldn’t test their luck, or well Arthur halfheartedly attempted to argue for them to keep going, but he relented with Edda’s insistence that it was a very bad idea.

They set up camp just by the road, Edda keeping a close eye on Arthur as they collected fire wood, making sure that he didn’t walk to deep into the woods.

The troll was right, she thought to herself, I am treating him a bit like an unruly child. She felt kinda bad about it, he clearly was a fully grown man, and even if he did appear to be very small, it was hardly fair for her to treat him like a child for it. Then again he is still a foreigner, and he had shown disregard for his own safety before, so maybe she wasn’t fully in the wrong here? She wasn’t really sure.

They got enough fire wood soon enough and Arthur started to set up the wood to be lit while she started figuring out how big the protective circle of Catsfoot needed to be.

“Hey, Arthur,” she turned to him, “how tall and wide is your human form? It would be nice if you didn’t grow out of the circle during the night.”

“Uh, 6’2 I think?” He scrunched up his nose a bit “I don’t know how wide I am though...”

“Eh,” Edda said, already measuring out the circle’s radius. “With your hands standing straight out your width should be same as your height so I’ll just use that.” She wasn’t even sure why she asked about his width in the first place.

Edda worked on the circle in relative silence, she hummed a small tune under her breath and found herself getting lost in trying to remember the exact words that came with the melody. Carefully she poured the Catsfoot in a circle with about a two meter radius around where Arthur had put up the fire wood, making sure to not leave any openings, but also minding how much she was using. In the background she could hear the telltale sound of flint against steel as Arthur was trying to start a fire.

She stood up after finishing the circle and squinted at it, it was getting pretty dark so part of her was worried that she might have missed an opening somewhere. Arthur seemed to be succeeding with the fire, but so far the light it threw was hardly good enough to properly distinguish the Catsfoot against the grass.

At a lack of a better or quicker idea she pulled out her dagger and activated the spell, making the daggers blade ignite.

“Woah!” Arthur let out a shout of surprise from behind her, making her snap her head towards his direction. Maybe there was a hole in the circle behind him and something got to him?

“Everything ok?” She said as her eyes trained on him, she couldn’t see any sign of anything malicious around...

“That’s a striking dagger you got there Miss Edda.” Following his gaze he found that he was looking at the, currently on fire, weapon she was holding in her hand.

“Oh, this thing?” She held it up a bit. “It’s really not that special, especially not in the grand scheme of things, mean sure it’s enchanted, but the spell is pretty simple all things considered.”

She turned back to inspect the circle with her dagger.

“Did you make it yourself?” Arthur had approached her from behinds to look closer at the dagger.

She laughed a bit at his question. “I’m not a magic blacksmith if that’s what your asking me.” She grinned a bit to herself at the idea, it would be pretty cool to be a magic blacksmith. “No, the blacksmith back at home, you know the town by my hut, made this.”

She paused a bit to squint a bit extra at one part of the circle, still doing her inspection while talking as Arthur trailed behind her.

“I mean I was kinda involved in the carving of the word,” she flipped the dagger to show him the four, currently glowing, runes forming the word ‘Eldr’ that was etched into the blade. “But, the blacksmith helped me there as well, since I hadn’t really done it before at the time.”

“But it was you who enchanted it?” At this point he was practically hanging over her shoulder to look closer at the blade.

“Well, in a sense yeah, I was involved in etching it after all, and when I wasn’t doing that I was reciting the spell to bind the, uh, spell,” she started getting more and more aware of Arthur’s closeness, she moved to inspect the last piece of the circle while clearing her throat. “So uh, why the sudden interest?”

He seemed a bit taken back by her question. “You got a dagger that can catch fire! Of course I’m interested in it! Who wouldn’t be?” He leaned in to look at the dagger again. “Plus, I’ve not seen spells that look like this before.”

“You’re any familiar with spells?” She finished up her inspection an turned to him, he hadn’t really struck her as an book smart type.

“A pal of mine does magic, he has these talismans that he puts spells on.” He made a small gesture with his hands to indicate him holding a small piece of paper.

“Huh? Well,” Edda shrugged a bit, returning to his previous inquiry. “Magic and it’s language can be different depending on the region of the world or comes from, so I guess your friends magic looking different is just a cultural thing.”

She stood up again with her hand on get chin. “Though, now I am kinda curious about these spells your friend has, you know what they’re called? Or what the type of magic is called?”

Arthur laughed a bit awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head. “I don’t really know the details, besides what I’ve already said. You know, magic is magic.”

“Oh,” she said trying to hide her disappointment, which she seemed to have done pretty poorly judging by Arthur’s slightly uncomfortable expression.

“Hey, I can get to that some other time right?” She clapped her hands together in hopes of scaring away the cloud of discomfort that had suddenly laid itself over them. “Let’s focus on the main magic thing, curse first, other type of magic, later!” The last bit was more directed to herself than him.

“Yeah.” He agreed, with a soft smile.

As they sat down by the growing fire, Edda deactivated the spell on the dagger and but it back into it’s sheath. Time passed as they ate dinner with Arthur pretty quickly falling back on telling her about some of his adventures to fill the time, starting off with a tale of fighting a cave dragon that was hoarding a treasure and the kingdoms young princess. Edda couldn’t help draw parallels to his story to one she was told when she was young. About a knight who killed a dragon who kept demeaning a small kingdom to feed it sheep, and then the kingdoms children or else it would wreak havoc and kill them all, eventually leading to the princess being chosen by chance to be the child sacrificed.

Her father would often tell her and her siblings the story when she was younger. Dad didn’t have that many stories to tell or lullaby’s to sing so when he had to he often would default to the same few ones. Despite having heard it so many times as a child, she found the details of the story had escaped her after all the years since she had last heard it.

She mentioned the story to Arthur offhandedly, he nodded and grinned widely while stating that dragons kidnapped or got their hands on princesses all the time, and that he, like the knight in the story, had saved plenty of princesses in such situations. She just crossed her arms and snorted softly at him and his stupid grin.

Thinking about the story had bummed her out a little bit, like it always did to think of her childhood, even if the memories themselves where relatively happy ones they still reminded her of a life she was actively trying to leave behind. Usually when she would fall into thinking about distant memories she would end up miserably stewing in them all alone, so in that way she was thankful for Arthur’s antics being there to bring her back into the present. Not to mention that stupid grin of his was kinda cute.

Oh gods damnit, not again. She buried her face in her hands, aggressively trying to purge the thoughts that was staring to try to make it’s way into her head. She did not need this right now.

“Are you ok, Miss Edda?” Arthur asked with an unbearably soft voice.

She glanced up to see his eyes wide with slight worry.

Edda was starting to wonder if stewing in her memories was a preferable option to whatever the fuck she was experiencing at the moment. Her face had never been so warm in her entire life and the soft worried look he was giving her tugged at something in her chest.

“I think,” she practically had to force the words out of her mouth. “I’m just getting really tired, maybe we should get some rest now.” Yeah that’s probably just what it was, she was probably just really tired from the day’s events, she had gotten in weird moods before when she was really tired, this mood was probably just more of that.

“Ah,” He said, “Then feel free to go to sleep. Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on the fire.”

She squinted a bit at him as she pulled out the blanket she had brought in case of a forrest sleepover.

“Not the whole night right? You need to sleep to.” She held out one of the blankets to him.

“I will,” he smiled at her. “I’m just not that tired yet.” He still accepted the blanket.

“Alright then,” Edda reached behind her head to release her hair from the bun, letting it fall onto her back. “Just don’t stay up to late, the circle should keep us safe from anything malicious and animals never tend to get to close to the road.”

She took a pause to take her belt of, before laying down on her blanket and putting the dagger besides her head. “Though I guess it never hurts to have your sword close by just in the case of wild animals, it is the woods after all.”

“Don’t you worry about that,” Arthur said patting sword now laying besides him. “I’m not planning to ever leave this baby out of my sight.”

Edda smiled in slight amusement, before deciding to try to focus on getting some sleep. Which was a bit easier said then done, considering that all she had was a blanket between her and the grass, as well as that she always tended to sleep with one extra pillow for her to hug. She wasn’t sure why she felt like she needed to have that extra pillow, and it wasn’t like she was completely incapable of sleeping without it, but there was a certain comfort in it. She never packed a pillow, mostly due to her having to pack relatively lightly, so she’d just have to deal with it.

In the middle of her thought she realised that she had been looking at Arthur the whole time, she immediately turned herself around and hoped he didn’t notice and if he did that she wasn’t staring for to long. And then she eventually fell asleep.

~

Harriet stood outside the door to the throne room, carefully listening in on the ruckus that was going on in there. She heard the voices of her parents, her older sister, and the familiar voice of her nanny.

“I know you are the reason behind this!”

“How dare you act dumb in front of your king and queen!”

“My baby sister would never do something like this unless someone tricked her into it!”

“Please your royal highness, I promised I never encourage her to do something like that!”

“You know our daughter is very easily influenced!”

“How dare you take advantage of her simple mindedness!”

“Harriet where’s our nanny?”

She snapped her head to the side to see her younger brother looking at her with eyes red from crying.

“I don-“

“This is all your fault.” He stared at her with a gaze cold with hate.

“I didn-“

“It’s always your fault!” He now shouted at her, his angry eyes slowly becoming the only feature of his she was able to discern.

She started to back away from the door and her brother.

“I-I’m sorry!” She hacked out.

“NO YOU’RE NOT!”

Harriet heard the heavy and fast footsteps from the guards patrolling the caste, seemingly having taken notes of her brothers screams, and she turned to flee back to her room. Her legs felt heavy as she ran, she could still see the angry glare from her brother in the corner of her eyes, and the heavy sounds of footsteps only seemed to grow closer and closer the more she ran.

~

Edda woke up, the thunderous sounds of hoofs slamming against the ground practically shaking her awake. Horses? Why was there horses?

As she rose up a bit to look around the realisation that this was probably just some night horsemen hit her, at the same time as she looked over to Arthur to see that he had completely rolled over the to the outside of the circle in his sleep.

Panic shot trough her as the sounds of hooves grew closer and closer, night horsemen were very well known to snatch up those they see unprotected by the wayside and to never return those they snatch up. She scrambled to grab her dagger and blanket as she practically vaulted over the now completely burnt out fire wood.

Arthur seemed to wake just in time for her to drag him back inside the now ruined circle of Catsfoot.

“Uh, what’s going on?!” He shouted a bit goggly, but his hand was ready to draw out his sword which he had in a steel like grip.

“Quiet!” Edda hissed, putting a hand in his mouth as she hunkered over him and covered them both in her blanket, which was a pretty convenient green colour.

As they got swallowed up by the darkness she realised that he wasn’t that small anymore. Oh right the curse. Shit, was she covering him property now?

“Pull in your legs a bit, we’re trying to hide.” She whispered at him, and she then felt his legs shift under her. “Good.”

She removed her hand from his mouth, as the sound of hoofs grew closer.

“You still have the charm on you right? That, the charm I have, and this blanket is probably our only line of defence against this.”

“I have it, but I can alw-“ he started, but the sound where almost just upon them so Edda put her hand over where she approximated his mouth would be and shushed him.

They laid there as quiet as they possibly could be as the sound of hooves reached it’s crescendo, she could practically feel how the hooves shook the ground as the night horsemen started thundering past them. This seemed to be a pretty big group of them.

Edda barely noticed how much she was shaking until she felt a pair of arms pull her closer to the ground and into an embrace, one arms slowing moving up and down her back in a soothing motion. She felt herself slowly relaxing into it, the warmth of the embrace giving her a strange felling of comfort, and soon she found herself closing her eyes.

Her eyes snapped back open as the blanket was removed from her exposing her to... the morning sun?

“Well isn’t this just adorable? What are you two lovebirds doing, sleeping here without a proper protection circle?” A female voice spoke above them.

Edda shot up to a sitting position to look up at the woman, accidentally dragging Arthur with her in the movement as he apparently still had a grip around her stomach. He let out a surprised groan.

The woman, now in front of Edda snickered at them, the foxtail just sticking out of her skirt swishing around impatiently. Edda’s eyes widened in recognition of who she was looking at and she immediately got on her feet to give the Skogsrå a curtsey.

“Good morning Lady of the woods, I apologise for our sloppy camping ground, there was an... incident last night, with the night horsemen.” Edda decided that she would focus her eyes on the Skogsrå’s eyebrows as she was having some serious trouble looking into her eyes at the moment.

“Oh, the campsite isn’t the only thing here I find to be sloppy, young woman.” The Skogsrå grinned knowingly.

“I- what- I assure you Mrs that this is not what it looks like, I was hiding him fro-“ Edda sputtered out, utterly flustered over the situation.

The Skogsrå just waved her hand at her and laughed. “Calm down young one I’m just pulling your leg so to speak, though you should probably avoid having incidents like this again.” She motioned at the hole in the circle. “Your charms seem to be of very good quality but they can only do so much.”

At this point Arthur seemed to have properly woken up a little bit, he squinted up at the Skogsrå as he laid on the ground, taking a few seconds to register that she was there before he scrambled up to properly face her.

“Oh looks like your loverboy over here is getting up.” The Skogsrå said with a big grin as she saw him getting up.

“Please don’t call him that Mrs.” Edda pleaded with her.

Arthur’s eyes where wide as he gave the Skogsrå a slightly dopey looking smile.

“Good morning M’lady,” he gave her short bow. “What is such a fair young lady doing alone in the-“ he cut himself of as he seemed to notice the foxtail, which he proceeded to stare at long enough for the Skogsrå to notice.

Edda was about to make Arthur snap out of his surprised daze, somewhat happy that he at least hadn’t tried to attack the Skogsrå, until the Skogsrå spoke up.

“It’s rude to stare young man.” Her mouth had drawn itself to a straight line on her face as she glared at Arthur.

“You have a tail.” Arthur looked up a bit at her but then down again to the tail. “Humans don’t have tails?”

Edda shot an apologetic look at the Skogsrå, and also did another curtsey for a good measure, before taking a hold of Arthur’s shoulder. “Arthur this is this woods Skogsrå, she’s basically the one who owns this specific forest. She’s not human and you should really stop staring.”

Arthur snapped out of looking at the tail and looked up at the Skogsrå again.

“Oh, well,” Arthur looked pretty uncomfortable under her angry gaze. “Nice to meet you, miss Skogsrå?”

“The sentiment is not returned,” the Skogsrå said glowering at him. “Now apologise for being so rude.”

“Do as she says Arthur.” Edda said between gritted teeth, not linking the idea of being on the bad side of a Skogsrå.

“If you don’t,” The Skogsrå said before Arthur was able to say anything. “I’m just going to keep this nifty sword.” She pulled out Excalibur that she had been hiding behind her back the entire time.

Arthur’s eyes widened as he feverishly looked around the campsite, and then turned to look at the sword in the Skogsrå‘s hand. His arms shot out in front of him.

“I’m sorry for staring Miss, can I please get my sword back?” He spoke with urgency, and slight panic.

The Skogsrå only scoffed at him.

“Not good enough, try again.” she twirled Excalibur in her hands casually. “I’m not really interested in swords really, but there’s something interesting with this one, maybe I can put it in a treasure chest and bury it somewhere here in the woods?”

Edda had now really noticed how fearful Arthur seemed about losing his sword, his arms while still stretched out were shaking, and he looked like he would throw caution to the wind any second now, despite her previous warning about attacking the creatures of the forest.

“Arthur,” she said softly, “take a deep breath, and when you apologise you should bow to her.”

Arthur threw a look of worry to her before he did what she said, taking a deep breath and then taking a bow to the Skogsrå.

“I apologise for staring at you, Miss Skogsrå.” His hand where still held out as he continued. “Can I please get my sword back.”

The Skogsrå hummed as she was considering his apology, Arthur didn’t move from his bowing position.

“Eh, good enough I guess,” she threw the sword back to Arthur who immediately pulled the sword close to his body, as if scared of it slipping away from him again.

“Now leave my forrest.” The Skogsrå turned and walked back into the woods, simultaneously shedding her human facade, clearly showing both her large and wispy foxtail, and also the large and dark hole on her back.

And so they did, quickly dressing themselves properly and picking up the camping ground, beforehurrying down the road in a relatively fast pace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoa, that sure was another chapter. Thank you guys for being so patient with me, these chapters are becoming longer and longer to write.
> 
> For things of note in this chapter is that the “night horsemen” isn’t an actual folk tale that I’m aware of, but a based on a story in which trolls would disguise themselves as humans on horses when traveling, which was a idea I really liked, but I also wanted the trolls to be less unreasonably malicious in this story, so I switched it so the “horsemen” that Edda and Arthur had to hide from was more akin to malicious spectres than trolls. Ghost stores are a part of folk lore as well after all.
> 
> A creature that’s fully from folk lore however is the Skogsrå, which is a folk lore creature I always remember really linking, because who doesn’t love a feral woman who lives in the woods? She was also really fun to write for. :)
> 
> There’s probably so much more I can comment on in this chapter, it feels like I crammed so much into it, and I didn’t even get to write everything I had planned, I had to end the chapter earlier than planned because there was so much already in it!
> 
> Anyway, I’m glad that you guys read this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it, and that you have a nice day. :)
> 
> Edit: Here’s the sketches I did for this chapter!  
> https://cookieeks-art.tumblr.com/post/625699268403101696/so-i-put-up-a-new-chapter-of-wayward-yesterday


	7. In which the road leads to Hävelösa

Edda felt like she couldn’t even think straight as they finally exited the forest, her face still felt incredibly warm, for an exact reason she was having trouble to really pinpoint. Maybe it was a little bit of everything, the fact that she had fallen asleep on someone she barely had known for more than a few days, the fact the had been caught sleeping on them by a Skogsrå, the fact that that Skogsrå was clearly under the beliefs that it had been more then just her sleeping on someone, and the fact that she and Arthur just narrowly avoided getting into a conflict with said Skogsrå. Plenty things she would prefer not to think about, especially anything to do with her falling asleep in Arthur, which she would be happy to have erased from her memories, because she did not need the extra level of awkwardness that they brought. She did not want to look at him and impulsively think about how warm and nice it felt to be embraced by him.

Going past that, everything that had happened that morning had left her once again with a mindspace in utter chaos, and she was severely hoping that was not going to be a pattern. She needed a semi functioning brain to do what she had set out to do, that being breaking a curse.

The inn keeper who owned the inn by the edge of the forest came out to greet them, asking about how they had fared with sleeping in the woods and if they wanted her to get them some breakfast. They both agreed and followed her inside, and sat down by one of the inns tables.

Edda took the moment of relative peace to get her hair in order, having just put it up in a pony tail before getting going that morning. Edda wasn’t particularly fond of wearing pony tails in general as it never felt like she had proper control of her hair that way. It wasn’t particularly unusual for her hair to get stuck on things when it was allowed to hang somewhat freely, like on bolts on chairs or buttons. It was probably a bit of a weird preference, but what was she but just a bunch of weird preferences. Either way she let her hair out of the pony tail and put it back up in a bun.

As she looked over at Arthur she noted him still holding his sword in a tight grasp. The experience of almost losing it seeming to have had a clear effect on him. She felt kinda bad about it, the strange sword clearly meant something to him.

“Hey,” she said to him, staring towards the air just besides him, still feeling kinda awkward about, well, everything. “I can try to embroider some Catsfoot into the sheath, for your sword you know.” She gestured a bit into the air. “It could probably help keeping creatures like the Skogsrå at bay from it.”

He looked up at her with his big blue eyes. “You think that would work?”

She smiled a bit. “Yeah, I mean there’s a reason I used it for your charm and the protective circle.”

He shrunk down a bit in the chair at the mention of the circle. “Right, the circle.” He looked up at her. “Miss Edda, I ruined the circle last night didn’t I.”

Edda tensed a bit, she hadn’t mention the whole circle thing to him and had hoped he wouldn’t have noticed as well. Mostly because she felt like she’s been scolding him way to much in the last few days and that it was hardly a thing he had had any control over.

“Yeah,” she mumbled out, and gloom started covering his face. “But everyone makes mistakes, and this one happened when you where unconscious, it’s fine! No one is walking around here expecting someone who’s new to all of this to not make mistakes, quite the opposite actually.” The sheer fact that he hadn’t yet gotten himself chucked like a ball by a giant was probably enough to wow any casual bystander.

He started smiling a small smile while looking up at her, she just grinned back at him.

“Plus, you didn’t attack the Skogsrå this morning despite what she was doing to your sword, so I’d call that a stark improvement from trying to fight a troll because he looked at you funny.” She reached over the table to lightly jab at his shoulder.

He smiled a pretty goofy looking smile at her. “Thank you, Miss Edda.”

Edda suddenly felt a slight tingling feeling in her chest. Maybe, because she hadn’t eaten anything today, she reasoned with herself as she pushed the feeling back. Outwardly, she leaned back in her chair and laughed lightly.

“Anytime,” she leaned forward again. “So how about the Catsfoot on the sheath?”

The owner of the inn came with the breakfast she promised them and they concluded that Edda would try to sew the Catsfoot when they got to Hävelösa.

“Just, try to not make it to frivolous looking,” he said to her as they excited the inns door after thanking and paying the innkeeper. “I got an image to hold up.”

She snorted at him. “Not very much of an image if it can be ruined by a few dried flower petals.”

“Hey, if you saw me as a human you would get exactly what I mean!” He retorted, and flexed his arm muscles. “If you think these bad boys are impressive than you should see the ones the real me has.”

“I don’t remember calling your muscles impressive,” she teased him, giving him a bit up a nudge as they walked down the path.

His face faulted a bit. “You don’t think they are?”

Ah shit, did she hit a shore spot? That was meant to be a light hearted joke.

“Well, uh, what does it matter what I think?” She deflected. “Plus I only said that I never _told_ you I found your muscles impressive, you’re the one here going around assuming things about what’s going on in my head.” She pointed at him accusingly.

“...So, you do like them.” He said, a stupid looking grin forming on his face.

Edda rolled her eyes and shook her head. “That’s want you take from that?” She let out a light laugh at his antics. In truth, it felt kinda weird for her to really say anything about his physique. The idea of her discussing someone else’s appearance just felt off and taboo, so she would prefer not thinking about it at all.

She realised that she had been quietly staring into space for a few seconds and she cleared her throat. “Anyway, let’s talk about something else.”

Arthur raised his eyebrows at her, only to shrug and go along.

“Alright then, uh,” he paused to think for a second before he snapped his fingers. “Speaking of your, magic, flowers petals. Are we looking for that yellow flower you mentioned yesterday again?”

“Oh right! Yeah,” she said, having almost forgotten about the whole thing from yesterday. “Hopefully we will see some by the roadside this time along, I don’t think we get to walk thought that much more forrest today, so it will be mostly fields around us for most of the time.”

“Are you going to stop to pick lots of other flowers, and leaves, like you did before as well?” He said, in a somewhat teasing voice.

“Well, yeah if they are useful, there’s plenty of flowers that can be used for magic, and also I didn’t pick that many yesterday.” She said defensively, at least she didn’t think she had picked that many yesterday...

Arthur laughed softly at her.

“Is that so?” He pointed forward to a white flower by the wayside. “What does that one do then?”

Edda stopped to properly look at the flower. It took her a few seconds but she eventually recognised it.

“Oh, this is Northern bedstraw,” she smiled a bit as she pulled out her knife. “It’s notable for being edible, and it incites mayhem to those who walks on it.”

Arthur seemed to do a bit of a double take as she picked up the flower by it’s roots.

“Wait, what do you mean it causes mayhem?” He looked at the white flower incredulously, clearly not ready to believe her about the flowers power.

“I mean what I said, if trampled by a group of people it will cause things like fights to break out between them.” She stood up with the flower in hand. “Though I also read somewhere that it apparently ‘makes women flirty’ which also apparently is a part of the mayhem?” She wiggled the flower by it’s stem as she looked at it.

“I guess I better stay wary about stepping on it myself then, the last thing we need right now is me trying to kiss you because of a flower.” She snickered to herself, before she realised what she had said. Out loud. With him right there.

Not daring to look at Arthur she coughed into her fist, and turned her gaze towards the road.

“Aaanyway, forget I said that, just a joke, let’s just,” she put the flower in her bag and did a finger gun forward. “Continue walking down this road.”

They walked for a bit in silence as Edda feverishly tried to avoid looking at Arthur as her face was warmer than the sun. Great going Edda, you’ve officially made it really weird, again.

“Miss Edda!” Arthur suddenly exclaimed besides her as he rushed forward to the roadside and pointed at a yellow flower. “Is this the flower you talked about before?”

She only had to glance at the flower to realise that he was correct, it was a John’s wort.

“Hey, you’re right!” completely forgetting her previous embarrassment she ran up to him and pulled out her knife once again. Excited she crouched in front of it and started removing the flower from the ground. “Thank you for noticing it! I was kinda, uh, lost in thought, so I might have just missed it.”

She carefully glanced over to him and smiled a bit, before realising just how close he was to her and immediately turning back to look at the plant.

“Anytime lass.” he said, his smile audible in his voice. He then leaned over, closer to her, to look at the plant. “You said this thing worked well against trolls right? Do you think it could break curses as well?”

Her eyebrows knitted together a bit in thought. “Break curses? Maybe? It’s not really the big thing it’s usually used for?...wait.” She angled her head to glance at him slightly. “Are you asking if I could use it to break your curse?”

“It’s worth a shoot right? If it can work against trolls why shouldn’t it work against curses?” He reasoned.

“If that’s your rational then Catsfoot would be a worthy candidate as well,” she said as she stood up. “Plus I don’t know enough about the nature of the curse yet to really say what would cure it in the first place, maybe it might’ve worked if the fairy was one of those fairies.” She gestured out towards the fields where small shimmers of light moved around over the flowers and grass. “But they don’t usually do these sort of curses, so the fairy that cursed you was clearly some fairy I need to read up on more before I say anything for sure.”

Arthur squinted his eyes at the fields. “Wait those things are fairies?”

Edda nodded. “I guess they don’t look like the fairy that cursed you.”

“No, she was way more, human sized,” he turned his head towards Edda “And green.”

“Huh.” Edda, pulled out her note book and started to scribble down what he had told her. She had heard about fairies being the same size as humans before, but never had they also been described as green as well.

“Maybe that has something to do with why you’re green?” She wondered out loud as she tapped her pen against her mouth in thought. “Being green is not exactly a trait of being a dwarf...”

“It isn’t?” Arthur said, sounding a bit surprised.

“I mean,” she started, finishing of her notes and putting her note book back into her bag. “Not around here. It isn’t impossible that it’s a thing where you come from though, so I don’t think I can really say something conclusive.” She dragged her hand trough her hair. “Maybe I can see if I find anything about it at the library when we get to Hävelösa.”

“Hey, it’s probably not that important to the curse right? Don’t worry about it!” Arthur waved his hands in the air, dismissing it.

Edda let out a light laugh as they one again started walking down the road again. “Maybe not, but it’s sorta interesting. Like the whole different cultures having different magic thing, or different magical creatures and all that.”

“Maybe you can pick up traveling after you break the curse? If you’re so interested in other regions so much?” Arthur offered helpfully.

Edda thought a bit on that, she guess she was somewhat willing to travel outside the kingdom in order to cure the curse if it came to that, but... There was something holding her back from doing something like that for her own sake. What exactly it was she didn’t know, but it was there.

“Maybe.” Was the only thing she answered him with as they continued their way to Hävelösa.

-

It was as the day slowly started turning into an evening as Arthur started hearing the soft but distinct sound of humming coming from Edda. He had heard her humming yesterday night as well, but this sounded to be a bit of a different tune then the in one from yesterday.

“Miss Edda?” He asked curiously “What song are you humming?”

“Huh?” Edda said seemingly having spaces out a bit before he talked. “Oh, it’s an old tune I learned a while back, nothing special.” She looked as if she was about to return to humming again before she stopped herself.

“Oh, well, do you know the lyrics to it as well? It sounds very nice.” He wasn’t exactly lying, her humming has been pretty pleasant to listen to and he was pretty curious about what it was about.

“Yeah I know the lyrics, but I don’t think you’d understand them.” She shook her head a bit.

“Try me.” He replied.

Her lips pulled into a slight smile as she looked at him, before turning her gaze at the road. Then she started singing.

She was right, he could not understand a single word she sung. There was something strangely familiar yet alien to the words and the way she sung them was pretty odd to. Yet still he found himself smiling at her as she continued the strange song, as they walked down the road. Her legs occasionally skipping and quickening their pace, she was clearly enjoying herself.

Her voice, even under the strange words, sounded hard and commanding, occasionally sounding like she was warning someone of something, of what he wasn’t sure.

Even so, it was nice.

As she finished the song she had a bright smile on her face, and she did a slight curtsey at him and laughed, a vaguely odd sounding, but still pleasant laugh, as he started applauding her little performance. Her toothy grin made his heart warm up a bit and he couldn’t help but stare at the back of her head as the found himself trailing behind her.

Soon enough they found themselves standing in front of a small town, the wooden sign by the side of the road reading “Hävelösa”. And right below the name of the town there was a poster about the search for the missing princess.

Right, the princess, the person he came to this kingdom for in the first place.

He had heard of the missing princess during his search for the one who would finally break his curse, his search had been incredibly fruitless so far, but he didn’t like to think of himself as a quitter. So when the story of the missing princess crossed him he knew that he had to join the search, maybe she would be the one to finally break the curse.

He had tried to join the big group of nobelmen and princes’s in order to get an in on the search, but the self proclaimed leader of the group had only looked at him with disgust and told him to leave.

This of course hadn’t been enough to deter him, few things were ever enough to do so, from trying to find the princess in his own. Or at least that had been the case until he decide to investigate a house in the forest where and young magic woman was said to live, had almost gotten killed by what seemed to be the local fauna, and had meet Miss Edda. A woman who after just learning about his curse decide to set out to break it with other than the suggested means.

He was a bit embarrassed to admit to himself that he had gotten so caught up in the whole new curse breaking mission that he almost forgot about the poor missing princess. But it wasn’t like he couldn’t keep an eye open during this adventure in an attempt to find the princess as well, maybe Edda would even be able to break his curse before the princess was found and then he would probably have an easier time saving her anyway.

He looked up at Edda, just about to comment on the while princess thing again, before noticing the deep frown on her lips. She seemed to be staring daggers at the poster and then she briskly started to walk into the town, not saying a single word. He followed her closely behind, but not before taking a second look at the poster in an attempt to see what had bothered her so much, the attempt was unsuccessful.

As he caught up to her he remembered that she had gotten pretty quiet last time the princess was mentioned, back in the magic store, she had said something about had remembered a bad memory when he had asked her about it. Maybe this was the case here was well?

He didn’t get to think about the whole thing for long, because as they stepped inside of the towns inn they both fund themselves face to face with a well dressed nobelman who looked like he was about to puke.

Edda immediately stepped out of the way of the young man and she took a hold of Arthur arm to make him follow suit, letting the man out of the inn to throw up his insides on the green grass.

“Looks like someone’s been having a bit to much fun.” Arthur commented as he turned to look at Eddas perturbed face.

Her lips spread into a careful smile and she let out a small laugh.

“Looks that way.”

Then she turned to look at the inside of the inn and her face immediately fell.

Arthur turned towards where she was looking and there was the group of princes’s and nobelmen that he had previously tired to join in on the princess search. And they where all staring at him and Edda.

He could feel Edda tense behind him and he instinctually put himself between her and the group.

“So our paths cross again, Dwarf.”

There was a loud thud as the leader of the group, Lord Simon as he had been told before, rose from his seat to put one foot atop the table in front of him, making the bottles and glass shake. The man grinned a large, taunting and unfriendly, grin as he looked upon Arthur, only sparing a slight uninterested glance at Edda.

“Tell me dwarf, are you still trying to find the princess?” He asked tauntingly. “Are you still under the delusion that the princess would want to be saved by a weak little creature like you?”

“Yeah, and what of it?” Arthur angrily replied.

“Wait, what?” Edda asked from behind him. Arthur was only able to throw a quick look at her surprised face before he got back to glare at Simon, who only appeared to grow more and more amused with what was happening in front of him.

“I see you actually found yourself someone willing to travel with you, a young lady nonetheless.” He thew another glance towards Edda. “Then again she looks like she’s 20 years older than she actually is and that she’s one year away from becoming a spinster, so don’t feel to accomplished about that. Hell, this is kinda fitting isn’t it? The stupid weak little dwarf, and the woman who looks like she’s already got a foot in the grave!” He let out a roaring laughter at his own ‘joke’, and the rest of the table immediately joined in.

“How dare you-!!!” Arthur started, but he was promptly shut up by having to get out of the way of a projectile being thrown at him from the table. It was a balled up sock that thudded against the nearby wall.

“Shut up, you miserable piece of desperation!” Shouted one of the nameless faces of the group by the table, and who was immediately cheered on by the rest of the group.

Simon laughter roared at the insult, and he gave the man a friendly slap in the back with such force that the man on the receiving end of his palm almost doubled over. 

“That’s a good one friend, he is a desperate little creature!”

The laughter was stopped in it’s tracks by a small ball smacking Simon in the middle of the face. As the sock ball fell down on the table and bounced a few times, the faces at the table shot surprised looks above Arthur.

“You really have some gall to call him all that, you pompous royal assholes!”

Arthur turned around to look at Edda who looked the most furious than he had ever seen her, or maybe he had never truly seen her be angry before. Her lips had parted to show her gritted teeth and her brows where so deeply furrowed that they threw deep shadows over her eyes.

She straightened her back, which had been bent from her punting the sock ball at Simon, with a huff and she took a hold of one of Arthur’s hands.

“Let’s go book a room, just looking at these shitstains is a waste of our time.” She turned to walk away towards the reception.

“HOW DARE YOU, FUTURE HAG!!! I AM THE MAN CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR YOUR KINGDOMS MISSING PRINCESS, I DEMAND RESPECT!” Simon roared at her.

Arthur was just a few seconds away from straight up challenging Simon to a fight to the death, how dared he speak to a lady that way! But Edda’s tongue was faster.

“That is not a rule you yourself follows, judging my your mistreatment of my traveling partner, so why should I care for it.” She retorted grimacing at him as she started walking away.

Simon let out a roar of (probably drunken) anger.

“WHAT’S WRONG DWARF!?” He yelled angrily, going back into the swing of shouting insults at Arthur. “TOO MUCH OF A COWARD TO FIGHT ME AGAIN!? HUH!?”

The people from the table kept hurling insults at them both as they walked away, and Arthur felt his muscles twitch from the urge to run back at them with his sword drawn to prove them wrong, he wasn’t weak!

“I’m not a coward,” he muttered under his breath.

Edda simply squeezed Arthurs hand.

“Don’t listen to them, they aren’t worth the time nor the effort.” she whispered to him.

“Royalty and nobels never are.” She added. This caused Arthur to temporarily loose track of his anger, it being replaced with confusion. What did she mean by that?

“Plus,” she whispered to him with a slight smile. “This inn is not a very good battle ground, considering that we want to sleep here as well.”

They ended up having to book one room with two beds, due to all of the single rooms being taken up by Simons group. Edda seemed a bit nervous about this arrangement, her having asked him if he was okay with it more than once. Arthur himself was a bit to busy balancing his confusion with his frustration to really think to hard about the whole thing, also he trusted his ability to sleep in the same room as a woman without making it weird.

That didn’t make it less awkward when they walked into their new room to see that the two beds had been pushed together so they sat side by side.

Edda leaned against the door frame with her face in her hand as she let out a slight groan. “I think I gave the receptionist the wrong impression,” she mumbled.

Arthur couldn’t help let out a slight laugh at this, though he had to admit that he didn’t exactly mind the idea of sleeping close to her again, but oh well, if the lady wished it to be one way, so it should be.

He walked forward towards the beds and started pulling them apart.

“Oh, do you want help with that.” Edda asked behind him.

He shot a smile her way. “Don’t worry Miss Edda, I got it!” But as he turned back he felt his face scrunch up a bit. Did she think he wasn’t able to do it? He could do this his sleep! He didn’t even have to use that much strength to push and pull the bed. In fact...

Arthur slunk in under one of the beds and lifted it from the bottom.

“Arthur? What are you doing?” Edda asked, sounding a bit startled.

He turned around and flashed her a triumphant grin. “There’s no need to worry M’lady, Arthur here can handle this just fine.” He then started walking towards where he was thinking about putting the bed.

“Arthur wait!”

He was just about to reassure her a third time, but was stopped by him tripping over a uneven floor board. He fell flat in his face and the bed came down with a loud thud.

He just laid there for a few seconds, he couldn’t believe he did that, in front of Edda. He pressed his face into the floor with a loud groan.

“Are you ok?!”

Glancing up he saw Edda laying against the floor to look under the bed. Her eyes were filled with worry.

“You didn’t hit anything?” She dragged herself forward to look closer at him.

He lifted his head to tell her that he was fine, but then his head smacked against the boards at the bottom of the bed and his face fell back down to the floor.

“Take it easy, can you crawl out? Of course you can crawl out, what am I saying, I saw you crawl under there in the first place-“

“Edda?” He asked, slightly angling his face to look at her. “Do you think I’m weak?”

Her eyebrows furrowed together and her lips slightly opened in confusion.

“No? I just saw you lift a fucking bed? If I where to call you anything then it would be a dumbass.” She took a short pause before she reached her hand forward and put it on top of his. “Is this about what those royal pricks said before?”

He nodded a bit. “They would probably respect me if I where human again.” He added.

She snorted a bit. “Why would you want to be respected by them? They are just like all royals and nobels, just some self righteous assholes with nothing better to do than belittle those they see as bellow them, you are better than that.”

There was that thing again, what was her problem with royalty?

“Not all princes are like that,” he said, moving his hand in an attempt to intertwine his hand with hers.

“Oh really,” she said, raising her eyebrow at him. “Doesn’t sound that you have had much experience with royalty then.”

The door to their room opened with a slam. “Is everything alright in here? We heard a loud thud?”

Edda stood up from the floor, letting go of his hand in the process, to speak to the person at the door. Arthur took the opportunity to get himself out from under the bed, and get back to actually moving the beds.

“No don’t worry we just had a slight accident when my travel partner here was moving the beds.” Edda reassured the woman at the door.

“Oh, I though you where a couple, don’t you want the beds side by side?” The woman sounded a bit surprised.

“We are not a couple.” Edda let out an exasperated sigh.

“We are so sorry about the confusion Miss,” said the woman, sounding slightly embarrassed about the mistake. “We can get some people over here to rearrange the beds for you.”

“Nah, it’s fine my friend here got it handled,” Edda said, and then the raised her voice a little bit “Just as long as he doesn’t try something stupid again.” 

Arthur felt a bit of warmth in his chest at her words, he looked over to where Edda stood and smiled. “I won’t try that again, I promise.” He then gave the bed a final push and it was all in place.

“Oh, alright,” said the woman at the door. “Have a good night you two!” Her departure was followed by the sound of the door closing.

Arthur stood with his hands on his hips as Edda turned around, and hurried up to him. Taking a hold of his head, she leaned forward. Arthur felt his shoulders tense a bit. And then she started inspecting where he bumped his head.

He wasn’t sure what he had expected to happen, but he guessed this was fine as well, he was enjoying the way her hands softly moved over his hair.

“It looks like you’re fine,” she said letting go of his head, “Sorry for being so hands on, but it looked like a pretty nasty bump when you got it.”

“Ah, it’s fine M’lady,” he said, rubbing the back of his head while smiling at her “Just got a bit surprised is all.”

She smiled back to him a little, swaying her hands back and forth a bit.

“So, uh, how about I do the embroidering thing we talked about earlier today.”

And that’s what happened, Arthur laid on his bed as he watched her carefully stitch the dried flower petals into the thick leather of the sheath. So far it didn’t look so bad.

He couldn’t stop thinking about what she had said about royalty though, it had bothered him, for obvious reasons. He wondered what sort of royalty she had meet to leave her with such a bad view of them. And if she hated them that much, how would she react he told her that he was, in fact, a prince?

She had glared at the men in the in lobby with such hatred and the thought of her focusing such hatred directly at him did not sit well with him.

“Arthur?”

He looked up at her worried eyes. Her hair had been let down so it hung and framed her soft face.

“I finished the embroidery, but,” she started, putting a light hand on his upper arm. “It looks like somethings, bothering you?” She put the sheath on the bed. “Are you still thinking about what those assholes said?”

He couldn’t help but smile at her worry, lifting his hand to put it on top of hers. “Nah, don’t worry, I’m just thinking about, stuff.”

Her lips spread into a small and tired smile, her eyes soft with sympathy and kindness.

Yeah, he really didn’t want those soft eyes to ever look at him with any form of hatred ever, and so long as he shut up about being a prince he would never get to see something like that. And that’s all his tired mind needed to hear before he managed to fall into sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I keep making the chapters longer and longer it seems! Crazy. Anyway since I can’t babble about folk lore creatures in this note, since no new ones have appeared, except fairies I guess but they didn’t have that big of a role in this chapter, here’s a fun fact about the original plans I had for this fic! I originally where planning on wayward being only 7 chapters long! Please keep in mind that I hadn’t done a project like this before and I was incredibly naive, but I still kinda find it funny, since I even before this had a tendency to write way more than I needed to.
> 
> Oh, I also mention a new flower in this one, this time I didn’t change the English name for it though, so there’s nothing really more to say about it. Something I can say something about is the song Edda sings in this chapter! It’s an old (originally Icelandic song I believe, though the version she sings is in Swedish) song called Ridom Ridom, it’s basically a song about hurrying home before it gets dark and all the things that can get you if you don’t get so safety in time. :) I wasn’t sure how to write about it from the POV of someone who doesn’t speak the language, but I didn’t want to write out the lyrics so I just tried my best.
> 
> That’s all I think I wanna say here, thanks for reading the chapter and have a nice day! :)
> 
> Edit: Here’s a link to the sketches I drew for this chapter!  
> https://cookieeks-art.tumblr.com/post/626550834847760384/oh-right-since-i-posted-the-new-wayward-chapter


	8. In which books are read and curses are pondered over.

Harriet cautiously stepped into the big ballroom, bracing herself for the barrage of noise. There was always a lot of noise whenever her parents decided to hold a ball, hundreds and thousands of people talking, shoes clacking against the Marble floor, glasses tapping against each other, she could go on.

She reached a hand up to scratch at the itchy lace around her neck, but stopped at the glare from her mother. 

“You have been absent for two hours now, that’s one hour more than we agreed on,” her mother whispered harshly, as she took a tight hold of Harriet’s hand and dragged her away. 

Harriet could not hear exactly what her mother was saying as they walked through the room, her sharp whispers simply joining and becoming indistinguishable with the rest of the noise surrounding both of them, but her body language made it very clear that she was upset. 

Harriet felt a bit guilty about the whole thing, she hadn’t really meant to be away from the ball for so long, but she just lost track of time. 

She fidgeted with the lace around one of her arms this time, she realised that there was a lot of lace on the dress she had been put in, it was not very comfortable.

Finally, her mother let go of her hand to gesture towards a man who looked very impatient, probably with her. Judging by the way he was dressed he was probably a prince or at least a lord.

He said something she wasn’t able to catch, and then her mother pushed her towards him, he held out his hand. It seemed like he wanted to dance.

Oh god, there was lace on her socks as well.

She took his hand, and he harshly pulled her out into the crowds of people, who immediately moved away to create a perfect circle around her and him. Effectively trapping her. 

He bowed, she curtseyed and then they danced. He was a pretty good dancer, and Harriet did her best to hang along, there were thousand people watching after all so she had to. His hands felt cold and uncomfortable on her body, not quite holding on as much as they should be, like he was ready to let her go flying into the crowd at any seconds notice. 

She stumbled a bit and tightened her grip on him in fear, he simply smiled a smug condescending grin back at her as he picked up the pace.

The lace inched. 

The noise in the room seemed to increase.

She tried her best to keep up with his now faster steps, but found herself stumbling more and more. Her head started to feel dizzy and she wanted to stop, but she could feel the glare of her mother in the back of her neck and so she pushed on.

He picked up the pace more and more, seemingly taking delight in seeing her fumble and stumble as she tried to keep up, his smile growing more and more at each failure she displayed. 

She gritted her teeth, determined not to mess up again. And then he loosened his grip on her. 

And let go of her.

And she fell, the room breaking out in roaring laughter, almost destroying her eardrums. She tried to drag herself up from the floor, but her head was spinning, and the lace was inching, and the room was so loud, and everyone was looking at her. 

She looked up at the man, who was grinning ear to ear, having grown a completely second mouth that was laughing a horrible condescending laughter.

Harriet felt embarrassed, humiliated, but most of all, she felt rage. 

Biting back her anger she looked around her at the blob of eyes open wide, staring at her, and mouth laughing uproariously. It surrounded her on all sides, but behind it she could still make out the silhouette of her mother.

She tried to reach out a hand to her, but her mothers eyes opened and glared at her, and then her silhouette disappeared.

~

Edda spent a few minutes just staring at the ceiling after she woke up, taking in the silence, the sweet sweet silence, as her eyes traced the wood pattern of the planks above her. Seeing those nobelmen and princes yesterday must have awoken a dormant memory in her brain or something. 

Fucking pricks.

She took a deep sigh, clenched and unclenched her muscles a bit, and then she rose up from the bed. She didn’t have time or energy to dwell on the past, she had things to do today.

She tried to do her morning routine relatively quietly, since Arthur was still sleeping pretty soundly, she was up pretty early after all. As she brushed her hair she hoped he didn’t have to deal with any weird dreams brought on from yesterday, the encounter did seem to stick to him a bit.

She shook her head a bit, those assholes were certainly going to make being in Hävelösa way more tense than she was hoping for. Part of her wondered if she even had the guts to sleep in the same inn as them one more night, but another part of her were keenly aware that there was no way she would be able to do what she needed to do at the library and then immediately start traveling to Endeslättaren, she would prefer not having to sleep outside more than she needed to.

She put up her hair in a bun, and pulled out an old book from her bag, she needed to get her mind of everything, just for a little while.

Arthur woke up about an hour later than her, and soon enough they where out of the door of the inn and making their way to the library. Thankfully they somehow managed to avoid any run ins with the princess search party on their way there.

She managed to locate the books she searched for in the library pretty quick, well, not all the books she had been hoping to find, but maybe she didn’t need those to break the curse. And if she did need them, then she just had to look for them in the next town. 

As she started flipped through the books, she took a notice of Arthur shuffling in his seat, seemingly already a bit restless. It wasn’t like he could take a nap like last time, probably having had a pretty good night sleep. 

“If you want, you can help me look through these books for anything helpful?” She tried, holding out the book she found on what she suspected to be the type of fairy that cursed him.

He eyed the book, and smiled a bit awkwardly at her.

“I don’t think I would be able to find anything helpful, Miss Edda, I wouldn’t even know what to look for.” He rubbed the back of his neck a bit.

“Just look for things like weaknesses, or curses and such,” Edda said, holding a scrap of paper and a pen “And then note the page number where it’s mentioned down on this, and then I can take a look at it later.”

Arthur hesitantly took the book, the paper scrap and pen. 

“And this will help you?” He said, a bit unsure. 

“It will certainly streamline the process of finding anything from the books.” She said with a smile.

He gave her a soft and slightly shaky smile in return as he put the book on the desk and opened it. 

They had worked for about twenty minutes, before a curious thought entered Eddas brain, and then wouldn’t, despite her attempts, leave.

“Hey Arthur,” she finally said, putting down the book she was holding. “You said you knew someone who did magic, did they ever try to help with the curse?”

He looked up from the book, and let out a slightly nervous laugh. 

“Well yeah, he was also under the curse, until recently. I don’t really know what it was he tried, but he sure did try a whole bunch of things.” He slumped a bit in the chair. “None of them worked, obviously.”

“Obviously,” she said, a bit bummed out over not getting to know exactly what has already been attempted when it came to breaking the curse, but oh well. “So I guess that left you to try to find this mythical, most beautiful woman?”

“Yes,” He said holding his hand up dramatically, “We went from kingdom to kingdom, finding beautiful princesses after princesses.” His hand flopped down. “Not a single one of them were willing to kiss us.”

“Wait, your problem was that you didn’t find anyone willing to kiss you?” She wasn’t sure why she was so surprised, she knew very well that princesses could be absolute judgemental assholes, but part of her could still not quite fathom what he had said.

He looked at her, a bit bewildered. “Yes? Is that, surprising, to you?”

“Well, I guess not? Princesses were probably, no definitely, not the best people to ask for those types of favours, but...” she put her head in one of her hands and started observing the books on bookshelves to the right of her as she continued talking. “You look, at least to me, like someone who could get a kiss pretty easily.” Oh god why did she have to continue talking? She already regretted ever bringing the topic up. Why was her face so warm, what the fuck?

“You really think that? Even as a dwarf?” There was a pinch of pure wonder in his voice, and it was killing her.

“Yea.” Was the only thing she could manage to get out as she wished for the floor to open up and swallow her. "Also you're really sweet." Why was she doing this to herself???!!!

Then she felt two warm hands take a hold of one of hers. She looked over a bit only to get smacked in her face by his warm smile and shining eyes.

“You’re too kind, M’lady.” He said as he lifted her hand up and pressed his soft and warm lips against the back of it. Kissing it.

Edda felt as if a jolt of lightning had shot down her spine, leaving her frozen in shock. One part of her brain screaming at her to remove herself from the situation, only to be shot down by a way bigger part of her brain that wanted to memorise the moment forever. Oh god what was going on???!!!

She did her best not to start hyperventilating right in front of him. This was probably something he did to everyone, maybe some sort of weird custom from where he was from! Why else would he kiss her hand???

“Miss Edda?” He asked, sounding concerned, letting go of her hand.

Edda shot up from her seat, trying to laugh casually.

“Oh wow, I think I need to use the restroom, right now, can you watch the books while I’m gone, please and thank you!” And then she walked away the fastest she could, collapsing to the ground the moment she got away from his eyesight. 

She held up the hand that he had kissed. She could still feel the heat of his hands and the softness of his lips, and she couldn’t stop thinking about it. 

It wasn’t like she had disliked it or anything, she had liked it, but she had liked it too much. It had been too nice, so nice that it had scared her. Why was her mind reacting like this? Why now?

She tugged at her hair in frustration, she just didn’t get it. Was she sick or something? A weird fewer maybe? What else could explain why she was feeling like this, why her heart was beating faster than it ever had before, why her mind filled with thoughts that she knew it never did her any good to entertain.

If his lips had felt so nice on her hand what would it feel like if he…

She had to stop this now.

Nothing good could ever or would ever come from it. 

She looked up from her little huddle of misery, and was assaulted by the image of two people kissing, pretty much the last thing she needed to see at the moment. She let out a quiet, but sharp swear as she fumbled back from the image. 

It was the cover of a book, put on special display in the bookshelf by the side of a sign saying ‘Recommended by the staff’. Besides it stood a few other recommendations, with titles such as ‘What the heart wants the most’, ‘The sweetest kiss’ and ‘Everlasting touch’.

Edda realised that she had collapsed in the middle of the romance section of the library. The world was playing a foul trick on her today it seemed.

Grimacing, she got up from the floor, throwing a long glare at the books that surrounded her. It wasn't that she hated romance books. They were perfectly fine pieces of literature, that she would read from time to time, but at the moment they inspired only negative feelings in her. The smiling, beautiful people on the covers only serving as a stark reminder of something she would never get to experience, while at the same time giving her false promises to the contrary. Like someone like her ever could really get to feel love.

She shook her head, there was no reason to dwell on things that will never be, she had accepted that she would never get to experience the feeling of love or being loved ages ago. That's just how it was and still is. It wasn't like she needed it anyway, she had gone through life just fine so far without it.

She turned to leave the isle and return to Arthur, the romance books having somehow served as effective dampers on whatever it was that she was experiencing just a few moments prior, but then her eyes caught a book that layd haphazardly on one of the shelves.

'Britta Vitorms runespell collection' the book said.

Edda picked it up from the shelf.

"Well you're not supposed to be here are you?" She said to it as she turned it around in her hand to examine it. Someone had clearly misplaced it.

With a spark of curiosity she opened the book as she started to make her way back to her table. It had been a while since she did some runemagic, maybe there were some neat spells in the book she hadn't heard of before. She took a look over the books table of contents, there were the usual fare, a wide arrangement protection spells, enchantment spells, cosmetic spells. Her eyes widened a bit in interest as she got to what the book called 'everyday practical spells' which for some reason contained 'explosive spells'. The amount of sheer, unadulterated, glee she experienced when reading those words were unimaginable.

"Oh, you're back Miss Edda!"

Edda almost jumped out of her skin, having become completely lost in the book and forgotten about Arthur. She lowered the book to look at him and tried to smile as casually as she could muster.

"Uh, yeah. Let's get back to work." She sat back down on the chair, the memories of what happened a few minutes prior threatening to resurface. She shook her head and forced them back down.

As she put the book she had been holding down on the table Arthur spoke up again.

"Miss Edda? Did me kissing your hand make you uncomfortable?" He sounded so concerned, but it took Edda a few seconds to register the words following 'Kissing' for some reason. She soon snapped out of her daze and laughed awkwardly.

"No it's fine," she said oddly unsure of whether she was lying or not, "You just kinda caught me a bit off guard." She let out a small snort. "People here don't tend to just kiss people on the hand like that out of nowhere."

He laughed a bit with her.

"I'll remember to give you a heads up next time then?" His eyes shifted a bit, "If you're okay with me kissing your hand again of course." He added with a careful smile.

"Yeah that's cool." She said a bit before she was able to fully collect her thoughts. She guessed she was fine with him, doing that, as long as he warned her beforehand. It was probably, just as she said to him, just that she was caught off guard before. Yes, that was why she reacted like that.

Either way they soon returned to looking through the books at the table. Hours passed with minimal progress, the books she had found mostly just talking about how to avoid getting cursed over how to break it. The most she could get in regards of curse breaking was trying to find some sort of loophole in the conditions of the curse, which while interesting, and something she jotted down on her notebook for later, was not the breakthrough she had hoped for. 

What she had found in regards to the nature of the curse itself was, a bit more fruitful, but hardly encouraging, as it mostly pointed to being hard magic to break with brute force methods, hence the previous notes on finding loopholes. Edda had at this point put the loophole method in her mental plan B folder, still determined to find a way to overpower the spell. Maybe throwing caution to the wind and trying whatever came to mind to break the curse wasn't that bad of an idea after all…

She shook her head, she had yet to find all she could on the nature of the spell, maybe if she looked hard enough she'll find some known weakness she could exploit, that wasn't about trying to oversmart the curse conditions.

Nevertheless in her frustration her attention was brought back to the rune spell book and soon she found herself flipping through it aimlessly. Maybe it had something on breaking curses? Her eyes were however once again brought to the explosion spells, and a related much more general channelling spell. Due to the nature of the explosion spells it was sort of a necessity to have some way to activate the spell without being in physical contact with it (or the object the spell was on), and that was just what channeling spells were for.

She absentmindedly jotted down the spells in her notebook on a separate page, it wasn't something she immediately needed, probably, but she was also too interested in the spells to just leave them by the wayside.

Returning to the issue at hand, most of the things regarding breaking curses was about cursed artefacts or specifically about dealing with curses done with rune magic. Her eyes lit up a bit as she found a spell 'for those unfortunate to be personally bewitched', the spell itself did not specify any limitations besides not working for curses passed down through generations, which did not seem to be the case when it came to Arthur's curse.

She added it to her newly created list for possible things to try through trial and error, if it had to come to it.

Arthur had left the table to get them something to drink, and as he was away Edda started flipping through the books she had had him go through, just in case he had missed something. She felt kinda bad for doing so, but she reasoned with herself that it was for the greater good. At first she didn't find anything new, which did not help the pit in her stomach, but then her eyes caught something he had missed.

"Transformation curses are often given to those that have given the fairy a high degree of offense? Treat the fairy with their deserved respect and no such curse will come to you. (For any notes on how to show respect for a fairy please refer to p. 34)" It read.

The text made complete sense to Edda, one would be an idiot to not treat magical creatures with respect, and Arthur, sweet as he was, had shown himself to be quite the idiot. He may have been even more of a dumbass than she had thought tough judging by how the text specified it being a 'high degree of offense'. What on earth had he done?

She noted down what she had found in her notebook and kept looking for other things Arthur might have missed, she found a few other snippets, but none of them was really anything helpful.

She leaned back a bit in her chair, stretched her arms and tried to be a bit optimistic. Sure she hadn't quite cracked the code to the curse just yet, but she had learned something new, and this was only the first library out of three. 

Yeah, she was probably going to get somewhere with the curse in the next library. At least that's what she tried to tell herself, she had told Arthur that she would be able to break it after all…

She rose up from the chair with a sigh, today really wasn't her day. Nevertheless she started to collect all her notes and clean up the table she and Arthur had been working at.

"Oh! Are we done here, Miss Edda?" Arthur had just come back with two drinks in his hands, looking curiously at what she was doing.

She looked at him and smiled apologetically.

"Yeah, didn't really figure out how to break the curse yet tough." She said, scratching at some imperfections on her arm.

"Oh," he said, clearly a bit disappointed, but then his face brightened up again. "Well there's still two more towns to go, and there's no real hurry." He put the two drinks on the table. "Do you need help cleaning up?"

"Yeah sure, but," she let out a short laugh "It seemed, at least to me, like you wanted to become human pretty soon."

"Of course I want to become human again," he said letting out his own short laugh. "But I figured, you know, that it wasn't something you needed to rush." His eyes shifted a bit all over the place as he spoke, but as he finished he looked up at her with a sweet little smile.

She felt a bit fuzzy, probably just grateful for his kind words, and she smiled back. "Thank you Arthur, I promise that I will do my best to break your curse." She curtseyed at him, with a pinch of both playfulness and seriousness.

"I'm sure you will, M'lady." He said in such a soft voice that Edda almost didn't hear it. As she looked at him she saw the sweetest smile she had ever seen on another person, and she could not help to return it to the best of her abilities.

They just stood and smiled at eachother for a few seconds, before Edda managed to snap out of it.

"So, uh, should we clear the table before or after we drink?" She adverted her eyes from his, hoping she hadn't looked at him too intensely.

"Oh, right!" Arthur said, taking a short pause before he continued. "Let's clear the table first."

And so they did, putting the books back in their shelves, her notes back in her bag and then just enjoying the warm drinks in a comfortable silence. And for the first time that day Edda felt, simply, content.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's a chapter that isn't longer than the last! A bit of a short and sweet one I guess. I don't really have that much to say here, but the name "Britta Vitorm" is partially taken from the name of a "wise woman" I learned about in history class and Vitorm is a reference to how some wise women would say that they got their knowledge from a white snake (Vit orm = White snake).
> 
> I hope you guys liked this little chapter, I promise I'll try to have more excited things happen in the next one! :D Have a nice day!
> 
> Edit: Here’s the link to the sketches for this chapter in my tumblr!  
> https://cookieeks-art.tumblr.com/post/627364530493767680/heres-some-more-edda-sketches-since-i-posted-a


	9. In Which Edda gets a letter

Arthur opened the door as they walked out of the library with a flourish.

"Ladies first, M'lady." he looked up to see her lips pull into a small amused smile.

"Why thank you, my good sir." She said with a theatrical courtesy, followed by a short but clear laugh.

He liked when she laughed, even if it occasionally sounded sort of strange, especially how her face lit up and her eyes came to life when she did it. It was a pretty refreshing sight as well after having seen her doing the same tense expression for almost the entire time they were working in the library. Though he guessed he didn't hate how her face had looked with that expression either. She had a pretty nice looking face that grew on you after a while.

"Do I have some dust on my face or something? What are you staring at buddy?" Edda said, raising one of her eyebrows at him.

"Oh nothing, just." he took a beat to pull the most charming smile he was capable of. "Admiring the view."

A look of surprise fell on Edda's face and her cheeks flushed, before she broke out in uncontrollable laughter.

"What view? The wall behind me?" She wheezed out in-between her screams of laughter. "You're clearly not referring to this thing." She waved her hand in-front of her face, followed up by her having to lean against the wall to steady her balance as she let out a few more belts of sharp, almost cackling laughter.

Arthur wasn't exactly sure how to describe how he felt at that moment. Shocked? Disturbed? Horrified? What was it she found so funny about him complimenting her face? Did she think him flirting with her was a joke? Why did she refer to her face in that way?

"Good one Casanova." She said, bent over as she leaned against the wall, unable to see his horrified face. She lifted up her hand in a high five.

She was finding the idea of someone liking her face funny! A stupid joke! He had to do something about this!

He lifted his hands to hold the one she was holding up, determined to grasp it, look deep into her eyes and tell her how wonderful her face was and that it was not a punchline to a joke. And then she would look as him with her wonderful and soft eyes, lean close to him as she did the night before and- 

"Have you never seen a high five before? It's like this." She slapped her hand against the two hands he was holding up and shot him a blinding, cheerful, smile. "You don't need two hands to do that."

Arthur found himself dazed looking at her cheerful face, completely losing track of what he was thinking about.

"Anyway," Edda stood up and stretched her back a bit. "Thanks for the laugh, let's go and see if we can get back to the inn without having an encounter with those royal assholes, shall we?"

"Uh huh, yeah, no problem." He said, still struggling to get his bearings.

As they walked down the small town a small sense of frustration filled him, what sort of man was he to just let a maiden imply such things about herself without him stopping her! 

"Hey Arthur, are you ok? You look a bit tense?" Edda looked down at him with her soft worried eyes. This was his moment.

"Actually, Miss Edda," he stopped to look at her straight in the eyes. She followed suit, stopped as well and looked down at him. "That thing I said outside of the library?"

"Yeah, what about it?" She said, tilting her head to the side a bit.

"It was not a j-"

Her head suddenly snapped up to look in-front of her on the road. 

"Ah shit, it's them!" She grabbed Arthur's hand and pulled him away from the main street.

Arthur looked over to the street to look at what she was referring to and there walked Lord Simon in all his unholy glory.

"Let's get in here," Edda hastily whispered to him as she dragged him through a door to the nearest shop.

As soon as they had gotten inside the store she let go of his hand.

"Sorry that I just grabbed you like that, it was a heat of the moment soft of thing." She said apologetically to him, her cheeks once again flushed pink. Not that he was thinking about it, she sure blushed a lot, it was kinda nice.

"Eh, no worries Miss Edda." He replied, holding his hand up in a calming gesture. He took a quick glance towards the street (through the store display window) to see if Lord Simon was still out there, or at least he tried to. His height made it a bit hard so see anything but the mountain of things in the display window and rooftops in the street. 

Okay, so maybe he was pretty eager to become human again despite what he had said to Edda in the library, he definitely couldn't wait to get back to his real height again. 

He took a look around the store they were in to see if he could find anything to stand on. It seemed to be a second hand store with racks of clothes, shelves of knick knacks, and a few pieces of furniture. Including a few mismatched chair's that were relatively close to the two of them.

"What the hell is he doing out there," he heard Edda mumble to herself as he went to get a chair, and as he returned he found her trying to inconspicuously look out the window, dead focused on what was going on outside. 

Putting the chair beside her he finally managed to get high enough up to see what was going on outside. Lord Simon had apparently started an impromptu wrestling match just outside the store they were in, a long line of young men pilling up to challenge him.

As much as Arthur hated to admit it, Lord Simon was a very strong man, there even was a small group of women that had gathered to watch with charmed looks on their faces. He felt a sinking feeling as he started to slowly look up at Edda, she was probably just as impressed as those ladies where…

Edda was staring out the window with a look of utter disgust on her face.

"Miss Edda?" He said in surprise.

She turned to look at him, her eyes softening just a bit.

"Huh? Yeah? Wait, why are you so far up?" She took a step away from him and saw the chair. "Oh." She looked as if she was about to ask another question before she looked around the store and let out a short "huh".

Arthur coughed and returned to looking out the window, maybe a bit awkwardly. Simon was in the middle of pinning another opponent against the group, not yet having been taken down.

Edda shuffled close to him again to look out the window.

"Talk about being full of oneself, what sort of person starts doing this kinda shit in the middle of the street." Edda commented with a groan, making Arthur turn and look at her again. "Why is no one trying to stop him?… How long is he even going to keep this shit up?"

"You're not even a bit interested in how strong he is?" Arthur asked, he had in a way understood her dislike for Simon yesterday, but her not even being a bit impressed by his strength sort of, baffled him.

She shot him a confused look.

"Why should I be? The prick has the personality of a boot covered in literal shit, but oh no let's go crazy over some muscles." She replied, her voice dripping of sarcasm.

"Oh." Was all he found himself able to say in return, feeling somewhat conflicted on her answer. He was happy that she didn't swoon at Simon's feet, but at the same time something about what she had said made him feel oddly self conscious.

"What are you two kids doing?" Said a voice behind them.

Arthur immediately spun around to face an old woman, looking at them with curious amusement.

"Oh, sorry ma'am," Edda spoke up, "We are hiding, from the noise in the street, my ears are kinda sensitive." 

Arthur was almost impressed with how quickly she came up with the lie.

The old woman smiled sympathetically as she walked up to the window herself.

"That does look pretty noisy doesn't it young lady." She turned to look at them. "That man has been nothing but trouble the moment he set foot in here, it's a wonder he hasn't died to a giant or dragged down by Näcken yet with the way he's acting. He's someone not even the Lyktgubbe would help in a pinch" She reached up to scratch her chin a bit. "Though it does seem like he got some local nobelmen with him so maybe they're the reason he hasn't died yet."

"Yeah, I noticed." Edda said back to the old lady. "Is it okay if we hunker down in here until he's done with, that?"

The old lady smiled at them.

"Of course, but I want you to do me a favour first?"

"What favour." Arthur finally spoke up.

"I would like you to not stand on top of my wares."

Edda and Arthur were allowed to roam freely in the store, after he apologized about using the chair to stand on and put it back to it's previous spot.

Arthur did make a third attempt at talking to Edda about the incident outside the library but was once again cut off by her spotting a pile of old leather bound books, immediately leading to her to completely forget the conversation she was having to run over to them. After that he decided that he probably should wait until they get back to the inn to have the conversation, maybe there would be less distractions there.

Edda had left the pile of old books with a mutter about them all being romance novels, and Arthur trailed behind, walking with her through all the things that caught her interest.

"Look! They have some drinking horns!" She exclaimed excitedly, holding up an emptied out bullhorn tied to a leather band.

"Wait, those are for drinking?" He eyed the horn.

"Well yeah, they are sort of 'out of fashion' nowadays, but they are still used by travelers from time to time." She explained, gesturing with her hands in the air. "Since they are less breakable than glass."

"I see." Arthur said, slightly amused by her excitement.

Edda smiled as she put the horn back to it's shelf, and then moved on, probably to find another thing that interested her. But then as she stood in-between two of the shelves she froze. Walking up to her Arthur saw what had caught her eye.

A large portrait, covered in a layer of dust, sat on the wall. It was of Arthur. 

It looked like it had been painted at least three years ago, as the Arthur in the picture had not yet grown any sort of facial hair, and was wearing a red-brown shirt with sleeves, along with a pair of thick leather gloves, but for a second it had been as if he had been staring into a mirror. A mirror that showed what you wished to be deep down.

"Whoo boy, does this guy look like an asshole or what." Edda snarked towards the painting, completely breaking Arthur out of his temporary trance.

"An, an asshole? Miss Edda?" The words stumbled out of his mouth. Did he really hear her correctly?

"Yeah, he just oozes 'I am better and stronger than everyone' energy from his pores." She snickered. "I bet he's the sort of guy who thinks being powerful is a good replacement to having a personality, kinda like mr wrestling out there."

Oh. Okay then.

Arthur masked the shock that was running through his body with a smile as he looked up at Edda who seemed to have the time of her life hurling insults at the painting, thankfully unaware that the man she was feeling such vitriol for was standing just beside her. If this is what she felt about him as a human, then he was glad he'd met her as a dwarf.

"Anyway," Edda shook her head. "Let's look at something el- Is that some sheep hide I see?!"

Edda excitedly took a hold of his hand as she ran away from the painting, towards whatever new destination she had set her sights on. Her hand was warm and inviting, fitting almost perfectly in his. He squeezed it a bit, feeling the slight roughness of it, and tried to ignore the nagging worry about what could happen when she finally saw his real self.

As they reached the sheep hides Edda looked at Arthur apologetically.

"Sorry about grabbing your hand, again." She moved her arm as if about to pull out of his grip.

"Actually Miss Edda?" Arthur said hastily, not yet ready to let her hand go, but also not wanting to look desperate, so he fell back on trying to charm her instead. "I would be happy to hold your hand longer if you so wished, M'lady." 

Her lips moved to form a small 'o' as her cheeks once again took on a pinkish colour.

"Oh, alright then." she mumbled out, not making eye contact, but also not letting go of his hand.

She held on to his hand until they finally got approached by the old lady again, informing them that the streets had finally cleared of Lord Simon's wrestling match.

They thanked her as they left the store, stepping back into the street.

There were still a few people hanging around, talking loudly about what had happened.

"I wished that I was the princess! Having such a strong and handsome man looking for her." One woman said.

"I wouldn't wanna be him though," a man snorted in return, "You remember how the princess looked like, right? The face of an old dusty maid I'm telling you! Not to mention that she's a complete social recluse."

"Oh, shush," said another woman. "You're just mad that he beat you."

The group broke out in laughter as the man sputtered indignantly.

Arthur raised his eyebrows at the group, it sounded like Simon had done some good, giving that man an well deserved asswooping, with him talking about the princess like that. He was about to say something to the man himself before he noticed that Edda was walking faster than before, making it so he had to hurry his steps to keep up with her.

Looking up at her face, her eyes were once again glazed over a bit. Bad memories again? 

He reached his hand towards hers, hesitated a bit, but then firmly grasped it again.

Her eyes widened and she looked down at him, and slowly a small but noticeable smile formed on her lips before she looked away from him to hide her face in her free hand.

Arthur felt a pinch of hope. Snow white did love Merlin even after he was revealed to be a person she previously had said wasn't her type, this wasn't too far away from that right? Maybe Edda wouldn't immediately hate him when the curse finally broke. It was a small sliver of hope, but he still held onto it with an iron grip.

-

Ok, so this made four times. Four times that she and Arthur's hands had been touching. In one day. 

That's a lot of times for one day. Was this the new normal? Holding hands? Oh gods, if that was the case she really had to put a reign on whatever emotion was ravaging her head at the moment.

She let out a determined huff, she was going to power through this, she was not going to panic, she was going to hold his hand without making it weird!

That determination only worked to return her thoughts to what was going through her head before Arthur took her hand again. The princess, the people looking for the princess, one of which was Arthur.

She had managed to suppress any more pondering over the whole thing since yesterday night, where she had spent gods know how long just viciously overthinking it. Eventually coming to the conclusion that, hey, who in the kingdom wasn't keeping an eye open for the princess at this point, it wasn't like she was planning on telling him about being the princess before anyway, and so far it didn't seem like he suspected her to be the princess. It was going to be, just, fine.

Plus, now she had made a promise to help him gods damn it, and she was no liar. Or at least she wasn't going to lie about something like that.

Also, she guessed she had grown somewhat, attached to him? Though that was probably just her loneliness speaking, she had only known him, for like, four days after all. But he was really sweet and nice and his hand was really warm and comforting and oh gods she was back to being weird about his hand.

Don't. Make. It. Weird.

It was with those words echoing through her head as they made their way back to the inn, hand in hand.

It was as they entered their room as they finally let go of eachothers hand. Edda found herself rubbing her hand a bit, fruitlessly attempting to keep the heat from his hand still there.

"Miss Edda?" Arthur looked up at her with his big, caring eyes. "I want to talk to you about something?"

Her mind filled with worry instantly. Had she been wrong and had he figured out that she was the missing princess? Had she accidentally said something really insulting to him? Oh gods, had she been visibly weird about the hand holding and had embarrassed him or weirded him out?! 

She forced the panicked thoughts down and shot him the most casually smile she was capable of at the moment.

"Yeah, what is it?" She said, only to have her attention dragged to her bag, as a faint humming sound reached her ears. The message-in-a-bottle.

Arthur didn't seem to hear the brief humming, and continued on with the conversation.

"It's about what happened outside of the library." Arthur continued, stepping a bit closer to her. 

Outside the library? What was he talking about? She tried to discreetly check her bag for the bottle, it was probably a bad idea to open it when he was around, considering she was trying to not let him find out about her being a princess. Maybe she could read the letter in the bathroom?

Arthur took her hands in his, prompting her to give him her full attention for a bit, which included looking into his round eyes... That was full of worry? Why did he look so worried?

"Miss Edda, I was serious about admiring your face, and I don't think you should joke about your face being bad. Because it isn't!" He looked up at her with determined eyes.

Oh. So that's what he was talking about. 

It wasn't the first time people had disliked her self deprivation jokes, she had been told before that she shouldn't say such things about herself. Of course he would find them distasteful, being the sweetheart that he was. She felt a bit bad about it in that sense, but at the moment she really hadn't had any other idea about how to deal with what he had said. That being said she seriously doubted he really meant that he liked her face, it was probably just him being polite, few people are okay with telling someone to their face that they look bad.

"Oh? Okay?" She said awkwardly. "I won't say that about my face again then?" At least not to his face. 

"You sure you won't say it again?" He said a bit suspiciously, pulling her hands a bit closer to his chest. She could feel the heat from his body on her hands now.

The heat was comforting and she found herself smiling a genuine smile.

"Yeah, I promise I won't say such things about my face ever again." For a brief second she even believed what she was saying.

A smile spread across Arthur's face as he let out a sigh of relief. He softly caressed her hands as he looked up at her with eyes that were practically sparkling. 

Edda however was growing a bit antsy, she really needed to read and respond to whatever letter (or, well letters) she had gotten as fast as possible. Her family were no doubt on pretty high alert since the whole princess thing became public, and could potentially lose it if she didn't answer in a timely fashion. 

A good princess wasn't tardy after all, and they seemingly hadn't quite gotten to the point of not seeing her as a princess anymore, no matter what she tried. She hoped they would eventually get it, but she knew that would probably take a few more years, at least.

Either way, him holding her hands was really nice, absurdity so, but she kinda had things to do.

She cleared her throat a bit.

"Are you, done with my hands? I kinda need to use the restroom?" She said, doing her best to ignore the pleasant warmth that was spreading through her body.

"Oh!" Arthur let go of her hands and laughed a bit. "Sorry about that M'lady."

"It's fine." She said, pulling her hands back to her chest. "I'll, see you in a bit."

She just managed to avoid walking straight into the door frame as she made her way out of the room.

Avoiding any other embarrassments she hurried to the bathroom, got inside, and shut and locked the door behind her. She sat down on top of the lid of the toilet and started digging through her bag, finally pulling out the blue glass bottle.

With no time to waste she popped off the bottle plug and pulled out, one letter. Admittedly a bit surprised she looked back into the bottle to see if there really wasn't a second letter from her sister in there as well. Only the empty void of the inside of the bottle stared back at her, there really was no second letter. 

How odd, her sister always sent her own letter, no matter what. 

Somewhat uneasy Edda went forward to open the letter from her parents, maybe there was some explanation in there for why her sister hadn't written anything yet.

What greeted her eyes when she unrolled the letter did not help her nerves at all.

"Dear Princess Harriet. 

Now when they all know will you finally return? You must have seen how worried and up in arms everyone is by now, they all wish that their princess will return back to safety. They are your people Harriet, do you really wish your people to worry? We know you hate to have people worried, you are a princess after all, and what princess would like her people to wallow in fear for her safety. We do not wish to force your hand to decide anything, but we are not the ones who you need to make a decision for, it's the people. They have even started banding together small groups in order to find you, as I know you must have heard. If you don't come willingly, they might be the ones to force your hand. They're not as willing to indulge your games that we are, know that.

We hope you will make the correct choice. 

Yours forever,

King Frode III, Queen Anna, Princess Signe and Prince Gustav."

Edda had to resist the very tempting urge to crumple the letter and throw it into the toilet. Not trying to force her hand her ass! 

She took a deep breath trying to collect her thoughts, tensing and relaxing her muscles, and then taking a second look at the letter. At least the signatures explained why there was only one letter this time, apparently it was a collaborative effort. Though the idea that her brother would have even bothered to take part in the letter was frankly laughable, as if he could give a single damn about her. 

Edda pulled out her notebook and a pen, and started attempting to write a reply. It was incredibly tempting to just write "No" and leave it at that, but that would just get her another letter full of lectures about rudeness, which she really wasn't in the mood for, so she couldn't do that.

She tapped the pen against her mouth in thought, she knew she needed to pose a reason for not coming home, that couldn't be seen as selfishness, which meant, 'I just don't want to' was off the table. Maybe she could deny returning with that she was busy helping someone, that was partially the truth after all. Yeah, that could work.

She started to write the letter, trying to strike a balance between readable text and chicken scratches, in a somewhat subtile attempt to drive the 'not a Princess' point home.

"Hello everyone.

I can not and will not return back to the caste, I am currently too busy with work, aka helping people with magic, to do so. Just tell the people that I'm fine, and that I have been fine for the last two years. They don't need to worry, I know what I'm doing.

I wish you well, "

Edda let out a small sigh before she signed the letter.

"Harriet."

Well that was as much she could handle dealing with her family for the time being. She tore the page she had written on out of her note book, rolled it up and put it into the blue bottle. She sealed the bottle, prompting it to shine brightly, and as the light dimmed the letter was gone.

Edda put the bottle back into her bag and exited the restroom.

"Miss, are you a witch?"

Edda spun around to see two small children looking at her. 

"Uh, not, really?" She said confusedly looking around to see if she could spot their parents anywhere.

The child closest to her, a little girl, piped up again.

"So the small green man is not your familiar?" 

"What? No?" Why were these two children unattended?

The little girl huffed disappointedly, then the little boy behind her whispered something to her.

"Yeah, I will," she said to him, before making hard eye contact with Edda. "Please say that you can at least do magic, all witches know how to do that."

I already told you that I'm not a witch, Edda thought to herself as she relented to the child.

"Yeah, I can do some magic. Why are you asking?"

"I told you so!" The girl exclaimed to the boy, pulling him forward. "Miss witch! I demand you fix his finger!"

The boy extended his hand towards her showing a small cut in his index finger. 

"We can give you some Dandelions in return…" he mumbled under his breath.

Edda almost let out a slight laugh as she hunkered down to look closer at the boys finger, so that's what they wanted. You'd think she had gotten used to the strange way children would go about getting help, after doing the local magician thing for two years, but nope.

"That's fine, you don't need to pay me for something like this." The cut was really not that big and would take barely any magic to heal, so taking payment at that point, even if it was just in form of some weeds, was almost straight up theft.

She reached in her bag and pulled out the jar that she had put all the Frogleaves she had picked so far in.

"We have to give you something though! Mom says that you always need to replay a witch!" The girl said, dragging out a fistfull of Dandelions that looked like they had been violently pulled up from the ground root and all.

Edda snickered a bit to herself as she took out a leaf from her jar, and placed it on the boy's finger.

"Well if you insist." She said before she closed her eyes to speak the short magic verse.

The veins of the leaf shone a bit, signaling the beginning of the healing process. Edda waited a few seconds to make sure the healing was completely done before removing the leaf and revealing that the cut had completely vanished.

"Whoa!" The girl exclaimed as she pulled the boy's hand towards her. "Cool!" She trusted the Dandelions towards Edda without looking at her. "Here you go!"

Edda awkwardly accepted the flowers.

"You're welcome kid." She stood up to leave.

The girl took a hold of the boy's hand to drag him away to somewhere else, but not before shouting to Edda as they left.

"I hope they help you look extra pretty for him! Mom said they do that!" 

Edda squinted her eyes at the children as they disappeared behind a corner, and then she looked down at the dandelions. So that's why they had payed with them, but who was the 'he' they were referring too?

"Miss Edda?"

Edda almost jumped out of her skin, as she turned to see Arthur standing just a few meters from her. He seemed to notice her surprise and walked closer to her.

"Ah, I'm sorry M'lady. Didn't mean to startle you. You just took so long and I wanted to make sure everything was fine." He said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Oh," she didn't think she had been away that long, but then again her sense of time wasn't always the best. "Sorry for worrying you, I just got held up by those kids for a bit."

"Yeah, I saw that." He smiled towards her. "Those leaves really do heal cuts huh?"

She snorted a bit at him.

"Did you doubt my knowledge of herbal magic?" She crossed her arms.

"Of course not!... Okay maybe a little bit." He admitted sheepishly. 

"Well, now you know not to doubt me when it comes to stuff like this." She snickered, gesturing with the hand that was holding the Dandelions.

"Speaking of, what exactly did the lass mean with those helping you look extra pretty?" Arthur asked, pointing at the flowers.

Edda lifted the weeds up to her eyes.

"Uh, well," she let out a bit of a nervous chuckle, it slowly starting to dawn on her fully what the girl had ment. She looked over at Arthur with an embarrassed smile. "Dandelions can be used to make someone look more beautiful, it's said that the juice from it can make your skin soft and smooth and that if you make a necklace with their roots it would make your eyes shine brighter."

"I see." Arthur said, returning her smile. "And when he spoke of 'him' I guess she was referring to-"

"Ha ha, yeah children can be pretty weird! Anyway, friend, let's go back to our room now!" Edda speed-walked back to their room without looking back, trying her best to drown out all the thoughts that were going wild in her head with planning for the next day.

"Next destination's Endeslättaren right?" She said to Arthur as he got inside the room as well.

She slapped down the map they had on the floor.

"Let's go through the route again shall we?" 

Arthur looked at her with a confused look.

"...Please?" she pleaded.

He shrugged a bit, smiling a slightly amused smile.

"Alright."

They spent the evening doing just that, going through the route to Endeslättaren. It was a pretty straight forward one, there being one main road that only branched off a few times, but which specifically was created to directly lead to Endeslättaren. 

The planning soon ended and eventually, as the sun had completely disappeared behind the horizon, they found themselves going to bed. Edda spending an embarrassing amount of time hugging her pillow, trying not to think about how nice it would be to hug something that could hug back.

Edda was thankfully spared from having any dreams like the one the night before, but the dream she had was pretty odd in it's own right. She couldn't remember much from the dream, like most normal dreams, but what she did remember... a sweet smile, hands softly caressing her face and a bright moon. It was enough to make her stare at the ceiling in sheer panic for a few minutes.

Especially since she immediately recognised the smile from the dream as she turned to look at her traveling partner.

She just, needed fresh air, needed out of the town, needed to get on the road again.

"Did you sleep well Miss Edda?" Arthur asked her as they ate breakfast.

"Oh, I sleep fine," she lied through her teeth. "What about you?"

And so the morning went on.

She breathed a sigh of relief as they left Hävelösa behind them and she felt the forest wind brush against her face. 

"Man, I hope next town is less stressful." She thought to herself out loud as they finally reached the main road.

"Stressful?" Arthur asked quizzically.

"Yeah, you know," she took a second to figure out what she could say to him. "Having to deal with some royal assholes walking around is pretty stressful, if you ask me." It wasn't exactly a lie, having to hide from them had definitely not helped her nerves.

"Huh, yeah, I see what you mean." Arthur replied, laughing slightly. "Next town better be free of any royalty and nobility right?"

"Oh, it better!" She said. 

There was a small lull in the conversation after that. It felt weirdly uncomfortable so Edda cleared her throat while searching her mind for any possible topics to talk about.

"So," she smacked her lips a bit, "do you have any hob-"

She was cut off by the distant sound of hoofs and shouts. Turning around she saw a steadily growing shape of multiple people on horses in the distance. She just was able to make out fancy hats with voluptuous feathers, shiny armour and flapping capes.

"When you speak of the trolls." She groaned.

On the road, heading straight towards their direction, was Lord Simon and his princess search party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back with the absurdly long chapters!
> 
> Now this chapter was a bit of a doozy to write tbh, but I hope you guys still like it! (I did have it proofread by another person after all and I trust thier judgement.)
> 
> As for any fun trivia on this chapter... Well the painting of Arthur that is mentioned in this chapter is based in a piece of concept art of Arthur were he's wearing the clothes discribed and doesn't have any facial hair. When it comes to any folklore stuff, I don't really have anything to except that there is a small rhyme that your supposed to say when using the "Frogleaves", but I didn't include because it's in Swedish and I don't trust myself to do a competent translation that keeps the rhyming scheme...
> 
> Also, I should note that updates might be less frequent now, since school finally started up for me again, but I'll do my best to give you guys at least two new chapters every month!
> 
> Anyway! Thanks for reading the chapter, I once again hope you enjoyed it and have a nice day!
> 
> Edit: Here’s the link to this chapters sketches!  
> https://cookieeks-art.tumblr.com/post/628312197377015808/heres-some-edda-wayward-sketches-since-i-posted


	10. In which honours are fought for

There wasn't any point in hiding, not like there was anywhere to hide with the road surrounded mostly by large fields of wheat, they had already been spotted judging by the pointing gestures some of the men were making towards Edda and Arthur.

It wasn't like they could act like they hadn't seen them either, as much as Edda wished she could do that, but both of them knew that the other was aware of the others presence. Making a run for it was probably not going to work unless they both suddenly gained the ability to run faster than a horse, which she sincerely doubted was possible at the moment. Leaving her with the option to wait and see what would happen when Simon finally caught up to them.

"Stay behind me Miss Edda," Arthur said as he walked in front of her, facing the nearing horses, with his hand hovering around the grip of his sword. "I don't think we can get trough this one by just being polite."

Edda scoffed a bit. As if that had ever been her plan, she had just resisted the urge to sock Simon the first time she had met him. Not out of politeness, but because a fight in a populated environment will bring attention, attention she didn't want. Lucky for her, the road was far from crowded.

Simon and his men grew closer, only about a hundred meters away.

Her hand gripped the pommel of her dagger. It had been a while since she’d had to use it for its intended purpose.

Simon was looking straight at them.

Edda tensed up.

And then Simon and his men galloped past her and Arthur, making clouds of dust hit them in the face. Arthur, being closer to the ground, got the worst of it, still coughing as Edda was able to turn to look over at Simon, but not without giving some smacks against Arthur’s back in an attempt to help. Did smacking someone’s back actually help with coughing? She wasn’t really sure.

Anyway, as Edda turned to look over at Simon, for a hot second assuming she had misjudged the situation, she saw him and his men turn on their horses and creating a barricade with them. With his head held arrogantly high and the large feather on his hat fluttering in the wind, Lord Simon stepped of his horse and started approaching them on foot.

“End of the line dwarf, I have gotten some intel that the princess will soon be in Endeslättaren and I have no intention of letting you get there.” He said, glaring condescendingly down at Arthur. He was ignoring Edda just like back in the inn, giving all his focus to Arthur.

Edda was torn between the confused panic over what he had said about his intel, and angry frustration over what the assholes deal was with Arthur. Seriously, why was he wasting time stopping the two of them, or well Arthur, when he could easily get to Endeslättaren way faster than them on horseback anyway.

“The princess!?” Arthur once again stepped in front of her to shoot a glare at Simon. “If she’s really there then you can’t stop me from finding her!”

“I disagree!” Simon said, as a few more of his men walked up to stand beside him. “It’s twelve men against one, deplorable, little dwarf, it would be a slaughter!” He laughed arrogantly, his men joining in as well.

Edda’s grip tightened around her dagger, the nerve of this guy!

Simon finished up his laughter, straighten his back and hovered his hand over his sword.

“Now turn back before things have to get violent.”

Edda had had enough, pulling out her dagger and pointing it at Simon.

“Check your math prick! It’s two against twelve!” She activated the spell, or well she tried to, the runes only shining a weak glow before puttering out. Ah crap, she had forgotten to oil the blade.

Simon, completely unaware about her magic malfunction, snorted.

“Oh great, the hag, almost forgot about you.” He tilted his head to the side. “Not like you being here will make much of a difference, what are you going to do? Turn us into frogs?”

“How dare you!” Arthur pulled out his sword and charged at Simon, prompting Simon to unsheathe his sword as well.

Edda heard the sounds of metal clashing as she panically rummaged trough her bags to find the bottles of oil she knew she had packed down somewhere. This was probably the worst time for her to have to reapply the oil ever! All she was finding was plants! This was not the time for plants!

She shot a quick glance towards Arthur to see him surrounded by Simon and his men. Crap! She had to do something.

Scrambling she picked up the biggest rock she could see on the ground and chucked it at the back of one of the mens heads.

“Get off him you- you- Skitstövlar!” She yelled, a bit short on good insults at the moment.

“Someone of you go deal with her!” Simon yelled, sounding just a bit out of breath.

“Don’t you dare lay a finger on her!” Came Arthur’s voice from behind the men.

“Oh no dwarf! Your fight is with me! If you want to save your precious little crone you have to beat me first!”

After that Edda stopped really paying attention to the banter, but to the two men that was approaching her with their swords drawn.

She backed up a little, digging through her bag with one hand, holding up her dagger with the other.

“Back off shitbags, you don’t know what your dealing with.” She threatened.

“Oh, we know perfectly what we’re dealing with.” Said one of the men.

“Just a little peasant girl in way over her head.” The other one to the left of him added.

Just as Edda felt them getting way to close for her linking she felt her hand brush against a familiarly shaped bottle. Jackpot!

She pulled out the bottle, backing off just a bit more with her dagger wildly swinging to keep the men at a distance. She just needed a few seconds to get some oil on the blade.

The man on the right swung against her dagger hard in an attempt to disarm her, she managed to keep a grip on the dagger still, but in doing so she had to move her arm on accordance to the direction the dagger hand been forced to. Leaving the dagger pointing to the road and the rest of her body unprotected from the men’s blades.

“Drop the dagger.” The man raised the tip of his blade to point at her neck, the man on the left slowly moving in to copy him.

Just needed a few seconds.

In a split second decision Edda took a diagonal right step back, lifting her dagger as fast as she could to push both blades to the left, which worked surprisingly well in defending herself from them, and led the men, clearly having stood a bit to close, stumble into each other a bit. Seeing an opening she rushed to the right of the men, taking care not to show them her back, gaining some distance from them once again.

Pointing her dagger towards them again, she pulled out the cork of the oil bottle with her mouth (not exactly having any free hands at the moment), waisting no time to pour the oil all over her dagger.

The men seemed a bit puzzled by what she was doing, but that didn’t stop them from trying to pursue her again.

“Hey! Come back here!”

Edda scrambled back, hands full of oil bottle and dagger, and mouth full of cork, making it so her retorts only came out as aggressive grunts, and activated the spell again. Her daggers blade immediately igniting.

“Wha-“

Edda threw a barrage of flames in their direction, in an attempt to force them back, which worked. One of them let out a slight yelp and dropping his sword, possibly having gotten to close to the flames and burnt his hand.

She tried to rumble out a threat, only to remember the cork, and resorted to letting out aggressive wails and noises while waving pointedly with her dagger.

Evidently she didn’t mange to get her message across as the man still capable of holding his sword charged at her, which admittedly was a bit terrifying. She of course simply pointed her dagger towards him and shot out a second blast of flames, which the man ran straight into.

There was a flurry of curses as he stumbled back, dropping his sword as well as he tried to set out the small flames that had caught on his exposed fancy clothes, especially trying to save his hat which had a puffy feather, not to dissimilar to the one Simon had been wearing.

Speaking of, she hurried her steps towards the group of men that was surrounding Arthur and Simon. She began trying to yell something, but quickly realised her mistake, prompting her to spit out the cork at the back of one of the men’s head in frustration.

Oh wait, she needed that to reseal the bottle.

The man who was hit by the cork let out a surprised yell and turned around, along with everyone around him.

Edda could now see more clearly what was happening inside the circle.

Arthur and Simon was circling each other weapons raised, both looking a bit worse for wear. Simon had received multiple cuts that seemed to have gone through the steel of his shiny, but now pretty dented, armour, with even one piece around his left arm hanging by the straps.

Edda had been pretty happy about Simons disheveled appearance, it served him right she thought, Arthur on the other hand...

His teeth was gritted as he moved over the ground, but she could clearly see that this probably wasn’t only him trying to look intimidating, as there was a deep red gash in his arm.

Arthur was bleeding.

Maybe it was because it was the first time she had been in a fight alongside someone, thus never before having to considered another persons health during the fight, but the sight of blood made her immediately reconsider everything.

What was the point of it anyway? She obviously didn’t want to be in Endeslättaren while the word apparently was going around about the princess being there, they could easily just turn and walk towards Bergeleva instead and hope the princess search in Endeslättaren had died down during that time.

And yes, maybe she really wanted to grab Simon by his ponytail and slam his stupid face against the ground, but was that worth someone she cared about getting hurt?

She looked at Simons face, even though he was roughed up the arrogant smile had still not left it, it was pretty clear it had been him who had left the cut on Arthur’s arm.

She felt anger rumble trough her veins, maybe someone she cared about getting hurt wasn’t inherently worth ruining some assholes day, but what was done was done, and she’d be damned if she let the injury be for naught.

“What the hell did you do?” One of the men asked, his eyes looking behind her.

Edda lifted her dagger.

“Out of my godsdamn way or I’ll turn you into a human torch as well,” she aggressively swung her dagger around, setting off small blast of fire as she did, forcing the men to stumble back giving her a clear view of Simon and his stupid, very flammable, hat.

She swung the arm holding the bottle of oil back. She had more bottles anyway, so what really was loosing one? And threw it straight at Simon.

It nailed him straight in the head, not quite breaking as she had hoped but completely drenching his head in oil anyway. Simon stumbled back in surprise.

“What the?” He looked up at her. “You!? Wasn’t you supposed to be taken hostage!?”

Arthur turned to look at her, his eyes big in shock.

“Miss Edda?!”

Edda, however, was too lost in her anger to give a proper response to either of them, just aiming her dagger at Simon and firing a concentrated burst of flames towards his face.

He let out a loud yell and ducked, saving his face, but not the large feather on top of his hat that immediately caught of fire, fire that quickly spread to the rest of his hat. It was quickly torn off as he desperately tried to stop the flames from reaching the rest of his head.

The only thing other sound that rang through the air as Simon aggressively started stomping on the burning hat on the ground was Arthur’s laugher.

Edda looked over at him, as he grinned a large boyish smile, for a second she felt that strange warmth in her chest again.

“What are you standing around for!” Simon roared. “Get that wench!”

Arthur’s head snapped up and he started to rush towards her.

“Miss Edda look out!”

Oh right, she was still in the middle of a bunch of people that wished her harm.

She ducked just as a large hammer came swinging for her head, she looked up at the person and lifted her dagger to blast his face with flames in retaliation, but then her now free hand was grasped by a smaller one that pulled her back and out of the circle of the angry men.

“Are you alright M’lady?” Arthur said, letting go of her hand and then jumping back in front of her to block an oncoming attack. “I hope I didn’t startle you, I needed to get you to safety.”

Edda looked behind them, seeing that one of the men that had attacked her earlier, finally having been able to put all the flames out, coming rushing at her with his sword raised.

“I don’t think this is a especially safe place at all right now.” She said as she sent another blast of fire towards the man. “We need to retreat.”

“What!?” Arthur exclaimed as he parried another sword that came their way. “We can’t just leave they’re blocking the way to Endeslattaren!”

“We can go there another time.” Edda said, and without a single more second of hesitation she picked up Arthur and made a break for it, back towards where they had previously came.

“Get after them!” Simon barked.

They where really not planning to let them go huh? Edda deactivated the spell on her dagger and sheathed it, freeing her hand to dig in her bag for maybe another bottle of oil she could spare to waste.

“But the princess!” Arthur exclaimed as he grabbed a proper hold of her shoulders, probably to secure himself a bit better since she was only able to use one of her arms to hold him.

“What about her?” She said a bit breathlessly as she rummaged trough her bag, once again not finding what she was looking for, and also she was in full sprint.

“He said she was going to be there!” Arthur sheathed his sword, but continued to argue with her. “I can’t let him get to her first!”

“What does it matter if he gets to her!” She was not finding another bottle, she really needed to organise her bag a bit better.

“What do you mean ‘what does it matter’ I can’t let such a knobhead get his hands on that poor maiden.” He had lowered his voice a bit, but his voice still spoke with a sense of urgency.

She could only find herbs in her bag again, what could she even use them for right now!

“It doesn’t matter because the princess won’t be there anyway!” She was barely listening to what she was saying. She pulled out some of the herbs out of her bag in frustration, then her eyes landed on the Northern bedstraw, oh right, she had almost forgot she had picked that up, nice.

“What?”

Edda didn’t pay Arthur any mind as she shot a glance over her shoulder and hurled the herbs towards the ground in front of the men that was chasing them.

It took only about a minute before she heard a crash of metal followed by some loud shouting behind her, and as she continued running she soon found that she no longer could hear anyone following them.

She stopped a bit to catch her breath.

“Did we lose them?”

“You sure did Miss Edda.” Arthur answered a bit quietly.

“Great.” Edda huffed.

She dropped Arthur down on his feet while she was in the process off doubling over with exhaustion.

“Let’s hope we really don’t see those guys again in a while huh?” She said in between breaths, shooting a small smile towards Arthur as she looked up at him.

Then she noticed the large cut in his arm again.

She stood up, and held out her hand towards him.

“I think there should be a river close by, I can probably do something about your arm there.”

Arthur’s hand went up to touch the cut, making him flinch and swear a bit.

“Ah, you should probably not touch it.” She said reaching out her hand to move his away from the cut. “Don’t wanna get anything bad inside it.”

He looked up at her, his eyebrows knitted together in thought.

“Miss Edda? What did you mean with that the princess wasn’t going to be in Endeslattaren?”

Huh?

“What?” She had said that?

Oh yeah, she had.

Shit.

“Uhh, well,” she started, trying to desperately find a justification for what she had said. “Well they only said that the princess would be there soon, and that just sounds kinda vague, like how would they even know that, whoever told them that must have clearly lied.”

Arthur hummed, thinking over what she was saying, before finally slumping over.

“I guess your right.” He let out a small laugh “I guess the idea of him getting to the princess got to me huh?” He looked up at her, a small apologetic smile on his face.

Just as she felt a sigh of relief exit her, her face once again started to heat up at the sight of his smile.

“It happens to the best of us.” She managed to get out, moving her heated face away to hide it from him. She held out her hand towards him again. “Let’s get to the river so I can deal with your wound.”

She felt his warm hand take a hold of hers.

“It would be a honour, M’lady.” He said, then after a short pause he added. “Will you let me kiss your hand?”

“Sure go for it.” She sputtered out before she was able to properly think about what she was saying.

She spent the walk to the river probably looking like all the blood in her body had migrated to her face.

As they sat down by the river Edda started to notice a few more bruises on Arthur’s body, she pulled slightly at the collar of his shirt to lightly trace a dark blue mark following his collarbone with her finger. Simon really did a number on him.

She tried her best to bite back on her anger, both towards Simon and... Herself. After all no matter how you looked at it she was to blame for this happening, both as Edda and as Harriet.

“I’m sorry.” She faintly mumbled.

“What was that Miss Edda?” Arthur asked, sounding strangely out of breath.

Edda took a deep breath, she had to be in the present, then she could at least try to make up for what she had inadvertently done.

“You need to take off your shirt so I can properly see all the damage.” She said, starting to pull out what she would need out of her bag, bloodroot, frog leaves, John’s wort, her wooden travel mug and some rags. Yeah that, along with her knife and the water of the river would probably be just enough for her to deal with this.

She looked up to see Arthur throw his shirt to the ground, his bottle charm following down with it, seemingly having come off as well in the heat of the moment. He held his arms out and shot her the most ridiculous looking grin.

“Ask and ye shall receive M’lady.” He dragged his hand trough his hair, taking a moment to tense up his upper body muscles.

“Arthur,” she said, a bit unsure over what he was doing. “I _have_ seen you shirtless before???” Why was he suddenly making a big deal out of it now? And what an odd way to make a big deal out of it anyway, it was almost like he was flirting or something.

“Oh, right.” Arthur deflated just a bit as he sat down in front of her again.

Edda raised her eyebrows at him, but didn’t say anything more, as she filled her mug with water from the river.

It was a pretty deep looking river, but with water clear enough that you could see the sharp rocks waiting on the river floor, if case one would be foolish enough to haphazardly jump in. A few Water Lilly’s and their leaves gupped peacefully to the edge of the water.

It had been a while since Edda had been this close to a body of water in the forest, it had been a long while since she had gotten to travel along with someone else after all. It was pretty nice now though, the sounds of the water being oddly relaxing.

Anyway, Edda lifted up her filled mug, mumbling a short water cleansing spell as she held it in both of her hands.

Her biggest concern was still the large cut on Arthur’s arm, it was way to big for any of her frog leaves alone, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know how to deal with it. Taking up one of the bloodroots she started cutting pieces of the root into the water in the mug. About seven pieces usually was enough, but she dropped in one more since she wasn’t sure if any dirt had gotten into the cut. As she worked she hummed a small spell under her breath, watching as the water took on a glittering shade of red. Finishing it off she carefully plucked about three John’s wort leaves from their stems, which she ripped with her hands and dropped into the mug as well.

“Ok, I need you to drink about half of this,” she said holding out the mug to Arthur, who immediately accepted and then gulped it down.

For a moment Arthur’s body shone a bright light, making Edda flinch a bit. Why did the light always have to be so damn bright?

As the light ceased she reached and took the mug from a somewhat dazed looking Arthur, taking up the rags she had prepared and dipped them in the potion that was left.

“Edda did you?” Arthur said, followed by a small sound of disappointment.

“Break the curse?” She looked up at him, somewhat apologetically. “This potion is specifically for healing wounds, not breaking curses. Sorry.”

Arthur looked at his hands.

“Yeah I see that...” he looked down at the cut on his arm, which now was slightly glowing. “The wound isn’t healed yet though?”

She smiled a bit at his confusion.

“There’s a few more steps to this, be patient,” she held up one of the rags soaked in the potion. “Ingesting the potion works to dull any aces and pains the wounds would bring you, as well as cleaning out anything bad that possibly could have gotten inside of you trough the wound, or trough anything else to be honest.”

She reached forward and took a hold of his arm, lifting it up to her so she could get a closer look at the wound.

“It looks like it’s working nicely, next step is for me to clean the outside of the wound, giving it a chance to start mending.” She carefully swabbed at the wound. “Also, ingesting the potion should help start the healing of the bruises as well, though it might not be something you can quite see just yet.”

Arthur just answered with a small humming sound.

After swabbing at the cut a bit it had started to pull together again, making the cut thinner and slightly smaller. It looked like it was just about time for the final step, at least for the cut. She took out a decently sized frogleaf, which she dipped in the potion just a bit, and then began slowly dragging it across the wound, humming the spell under her breath.

As she pulled the frogleaf along, the wound began to disappear, bit by bit. Finally being completely gone as she finished dragging the leaf, which she pulled away with a flourish.

“Tada, no more cut!” She said gesturing a bit theatrically at his arm. “Now to the bruises.” She pulled out another rag that she dipped in the potion, and then started to carefully swab at the bruise at Arthur’s collarbone.

After a few swabs, she put the rag down, leaned back a bit, picked up the mug with the potion and took a small swig up it, making sure to let it slosh around a bit in her mouth before properly swallowing it.

“Miss Edda, why are _you_ drinking it?” Arthur asked.

“Well, because,” Edda said, as she leaned back in to the bruise. “Otherwise, this would not work.”

Leaning her face in, close to the bruise she started to lightly blow on it, watching as the dark blue colour started to blow away, as if it had just been dirt on his skin.

Arthur let out a loud gasp, making Edda jump back a bit.

“Oh! Did I hurt you? You shouldn’t be able to hur-“ she started.

“Ah, no, don’t worry M’lady.” Arthur said, laughing slightly while holding his hands up. “Please, continue with what you where doing.”

“Oh, ok, if you say so?” Edda, a bit confused, leaned back in to blow the last bit of the bruise on his collarbone away, and then reached for the rag again to deal with the other bruises.

And so she worked for a while, swabbing at the bruises with the potion soaked rag and then blowing them away with her breath, finally reaching the last bruise, that was on his right cheek.

She had to admit that she’d been avoiding that specific bruise, as the idea of getting so close to his face made her stomach feel, strange. But she had to heal it as well, so she took a deep breath and started to swab at his cheek, trying her damnedest not to look into his big eyes as she did it.

She ended up swabbing his cheek a bit longer than what was maybe needed, but she eventually relented, put down the rag and started lean in towards his face.

It was going great, until she made the mistake of looking him in the eyes, which lead to her looking down in slight panic, which lead to her staring at his lips instead. The same lips that had kissed her hand more than once now, which where so soft and warm and looked so nice and inviting and-

Realising that she was leaning in towards the wrong spot on his face, she immediately shook herself back to reality, tore her eyes away from his mouth and moved her head to focus on the bruise.

Just, focus on the bruise. Nothing else. 

She was somewhat shameful to admit that she had moved in way closer to his face than was maybe needed, as she carefully started blowing in the bruise. Her eyes following the dark blue particles that few away from his cheek.

Her face was probably warmer than the inside of an oven when she finally leaned back from him, but at least she was done, she had healed him.

“So,” she said, doing her best to act casual about the whole thing. “How’re you feeling now? Better, I hope.”

It took Arthur a second to answer her, as he just looked at her with a dopey looking smile on his face, long enough for Edda to fear that she might have gone a bit overboard with the painkilling aspect of the potion. But then he snapped out of it and grinned at her.

“Oh, much better. You, my fair lady, have done a stupendous job at healing this warriors wounds.” He gestured towards her with one of his hands dramatically as he held the other one in a clenched fist against his chest.

Edda snorted a bit at how theatrical he was acting, while actively trying to ignore how her heart where starting to beat faster at the sight of his stupid looking grin.

“Well, glad to hear that, my mighty warrior.” She said, snickering a bit as she started to clean up the mess she had made during the healing process, looking away from his warm eyes.

There was still some potion left in the mug, which would probably be a waste to throw away, so she poured the remains into one of the empty small bottles she had packed down before for the charms.

It only took her a short while to finish packing up the rest off her stuff. She turned towards Arthur, who was in the middle of putting on his shirt again, along with with his belt and the sword.

“So, let’s see if we can make our way to Bergeleva huh?” They had lost a little bit of time, but if her memory served correctly, there should be a road close by that could get them on the right track, and lead to an inn they could sleep in on the way.

Arthur’s face seemed to fall somewhat.

“Yeah, Bergeleva...” his eyebrows scrunched together as he stared towards his side for a bit.

“Arthur?” Edda asked, concerned.

“Miss Edda,” Arthur said slowly as he looked up at her. “What if the princess really will be at Endeslattaren?”

Edda felt her heart sink a bit at the worried look on Arthur’s face, he really hadn’t been able to let that go huh? He really was that worried about Simon getting to the princess. It wasn’t like she really could blame him to much, she would feel sorry for any woman who had the misfortune of being in that man’s crosshairs.

Part of her wanted to tell him, then and there, that he didn’t have to worry because the princess was right here with him, and not anywhere close to Simon. But she couldn’t, she had forged her identity as Edda for to long to trow it away on a dime like that. Plus, sweet as Arthur was, she still feared what he would do if he found out. How would his opinion of her change? How would his treatment of her change? Would he as well join the voices telling her to return at her ‘rightful’ place in the castle? The sheer idea of anything close to that happening made something inside her ache, badly.

She tried to ignore her paranoid thoughts, she just had to figure out a way to tell him for sure that the princess wasn’t going to be in Endeslättaren, without revealing anything she didn’t want to reveal.

“Well, uh,” she stammered, as she looked around for anything that could give her an idea for what to say. Then her eyes caught the sight of a small hat moving around in the grass a bit away from them, and then a very tiny hand that waved at her, urging her to come closer.

A forest-gnome!

Without a word she took a hold of Arthur’s hand and started walking towards the gnome, who, seemingly noticing her moving closer started to move as well, running a bit further away into the grass, pausing, and then waving towards her to follow.

“Miss Edda?” Arthur asked.

“Hold on I think I got something.” She said as she continued following the gnome.

Usually she would be more cautious when it came to following magical creatures anywhere, but this wasn’t just any magical creature. Gnomes was known for only showing themselves to humans if they really wanted to, so the sheer fact that she had been able to see the gnome in the first place had to mean something important. Plus gnomes were creatures who rarely acted maliciously towards other living creatures, they where even known for being quite helpful to those who stumbled across them. And gods know she needed help right now.

Arthur didn’t seem to notice the gnome, or at least he didn’t make a note of them as she dragged him along with her.

Finally she reached a large old tree, under which roots the gnome disappeared under. Edda walked closer to it, observing the large hole in the middle of it’s trunk, inside of which a small hat popped up again.

“Hey! Want some help dealing with that knuckle head!?” The gnome shouted at her, and after a small pause they added. “Don’t worry he can’t hear me!”

“Miss Edda? What’s going on?” Arthur asked, looking up at her with confused and concerned eyes.

Time to think fast Edda.

“Uh, well, this is a tree that, with the right offering, will answer any yes or no questions you got, one hundred percent correctly!” She was really just making things up as she went, but she did know that you should give a gnome something in return for their help, and calling that an offering wasn’t too out there.

“Really?” Arthur said his eyes widening as he threw a short glance at the tree. “Then I can ask it about the princess, right?”

Edda looked at the tree to see if the gnome was alright with going along with the lie, they responded with a thumbs up and with a loud yell.

“One knock means yes, and two knocks means no!”

“Yeah, it can do that.” Edda said as she turned back to Arthur. “One knock, yes, two knocks, no.”

“Great!” Arthur exclaimed, then he paused a bit in thought, making Edda sweat a bit in fear that he might have seen trough her bluff. “Do you have ‘the right offering’ on you then?”

Edda did her best to hide the sigh of relief that exited her as she started to root through her bag.

“Yeah, I should have something like that in here.” Maybe she had some dried vegetables she could give to the gnome, if not, maybe some herbs?

“The red potion!” The gnome shouted. “Give me the red potion!”

Oh, Edda rummaged a bit more trough her bag and pulled out the small bottle with the remaining potion.

“This will work just fine,” she said to Arthur, as she moved closer to the tree and handed the potion to the gnome, who eagerly grabbed it and scurried away into the darkness.

A few seconds later a loud humming started emanating from the tree.

“Ask away!” The voice of the gnome echoed out of the hole.

Edda nudged Arthur’s shoulder a bit.

“You can ask the question now.”

Arthur nodded and looked determinately at the tree.

“Will the princess soon be at Endeslattaren like Simon said?”

Two knocks echoed trough the tree and out of the hole. Arthur visibly relaxed, letting out a sigh of relief, Edda copied him almost exactly.

“Well, if that’s the case then how about we get going to, Bergeleva was it?” Arthur said, turning to Edda, who just nodded, happy to have one less thing to worry about.

“Just give me a second,” Edda said, leaning a bit against the tree. “I need to, do some small things with this tree so that it, deactivates?”

Arthur looked at her with a slightly confused look, but then he just shrugged and moved away from the tree.

“Do what you need to do, M’lady.”

Edda found herself smiling as she turned to talk to the gnome that had returned to the hole, apparently they had seen her while she was healing Arthur, they had a badly hurt sibling and had been out of any needed herbs for healing said sibling, which is why they had gotten the idea to ask Edda for help. She offered to give them some extra herbs for any future use, but they refused, only letting her give them three small frogleaves.

Edda finished up the conversation with the gnome with a thank you and good bye as she turned towards Arthur, as he had decided to stand a bit away from the tree as she talked to the gnome.

But Arthur was nowhere to be found.

“Arthur?!” Edda’s heart was once again filled with panic, which wasn’t at all helped as she started hearing the faint, but distinct, sound of a violin.

Coming directly from the direction of the river.

There was no hesitation as she turned towards the lovely melody, and ran as fast as she could, because she knew, Arthur’s life could very well depend on it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Thanks for reading this chapter! It sure was something. Some scenes turned out a bit longer than I had first estimated, not sure why that keeps happening, but oh well.
> 
> So, gnomes huh? I had been toying with including them in this fic, but had decided not to, until now when I had to figure out how she could convince Arthur that the princess really wasn’t going to be in Endeslättaren. I mostly based my idea of gnomes, or “Tomtar” as we call these creatures in Swedish, of the stories I was told about them when I was younger as well as a book I remember being simply called “Tomten” that spoke of the different types of gnomes that existed. The basic gist of this sort of gnome that I used here, the forrest gnome, is that they are friends and protectors of the living creatures of the forrest (they are actually incredibly strong despite their size).
> 
> Also of note regarding this chapter, it was the story’s first fight scene! I hope I wrote it somewhat decently, can’t exactly say I’m used to writing action like this, but I tried my best.
> 
> You might also have noted that I had Arthur say Endeslättaren without the “ä”, which is mostly me remembering that he doesn’t speak Swedish and thusly probably wouldn’t pronounce the name quite the same way as Edda, we’ll just have to see if I stick to this decision since I’m not 100% sure about it even as I’m typing this.
> 
> I’ve probably rambeled on for a bit to long now, so I’ll cut myself off here. Once again, thanks for reading this chapter! Please feel free to comment your thoughts on it, and I hope you have a nice day! :)
> 
> Edit: Here’s link to the sketches for this chapter!  
> https://cookieeks-art.tumblr.com/post/629406697900900352/heres-some-sketches-for-chapter-10-of-wayward


	11. In which things get a bit wet

Arthur rushed back towards the river. He couldn’t believe that he had forgotten to put her charm back on when he was redressing! It was a gift from her and he had just thrown it on the ground and forgotten about it!

There was no point it beating himself up over it though, he was going to get it back. He still remembered roughly where they had sat down and the charm had hopefully not been moved by anything during the time they were away. He was going to get it back and then return to Edda like nothing had ever happened.

It was as he started hearing the sound of water as he suddenly found himself stopping in his tracks. A strange melody entered his ears, it was a light airy tune that slipped through the trees, and danced around him.

It was the most beautiful sound Arthur had ever heard in his entire life.

He had to get closer to it.

As he exited out of the foliage, and reached the spot he and Edda had been at, he spotted a silhouette on top of the rushing water, it was holding a shiny violin in it’s hand which it gracefully played.

The music moved around him like a soft breeze, pulling him closer. It was still to faint, he had to hear it better.

He walked closer to the river, his eyes never moving from the source of the melody that played in his ears. Not paying a single mind to where he was putting his feet, yet still somehow not tripping on a single thing.

And not noticing or caring as his boots kicked something light and sent it into the water with a plop.

He was almost by the edge of the river, but he wasn’t close enough. He had to get c-

There was a loud shrieking sound from behind him, making him completely snap out of the trance he was in, but only for a moment. The silhouette seemed a bit startled, stopping it’s playing, but them returning to it, with a more overpowering melody to block out the screaming sound that was growing louder and louder.

He moved forward again, the urge to hear the music better once again gripping him. And then there was no more land to put his foot on.

Arthur finally realised what he was doing, but it was too late, he was already toppling forward.

And he began falling.

Towards the rushing water.

And the ragged stones, waiting to break him, beneath it.

A hand gripped the back of his collar, pulling him away just as he was going to touch the water and into a warm embrace. He could feel the person who was holding him breath hasty breaths as their arms tightened around him.

There was a voice coming from above him, speaking words he couldn’t quite make out, his head feeling fuzzy and the melody still wrapping itself around his brain like a snake.

He looked to see the silhouette, now standing up turned towards him, still playing the violin, but now also speaking words he couldn’t make out, while looking above him.

The silhouette was a man, almost nude where it not for the water flora that draped itself across his body, making it look like he just had stepped out of the river after playing with it’s weeds. The man looked distinctly human, but there was something off about him, something strange that nagged at Arthur’s fuzzy brain.

The man smiled to something above Arthur, but the smile never reached his eyes, which looked cold and dull, strangely reminiscent of those of a dead fish.

Arthur felt hands touch his face, attempting to pull his gaze away from the, now frankly sort of terrifying, man. He struggled against the hands, he needed to keep his eyes on the source of that music, what if it disappeared when he wasn’t looking!

Someone yelled, what exactly he could not hear, nor did he care.

Then someone moved in front of him blocking his view of the horrible man. Arthur was about to move to the side, but then felt the stem of a flower being put into his hair.

And everything was suddenly clear again. The music still played, but the hold it had had was completely gone.

Arthur saw the worried eyes of Edda before him and he felt her hand holding the side of his face.

The music stopped and a voice spoke, finally clear enough to hear.

“Well, if that’s how you wish to play, _flicka lilla_.”

There was a loud splash and then, silence.

“Are you okay?” Edda asked, taking his face in both of her hands, her thumbs softly caressing his cheeks. “What happened to your charm? It should have stopped you from getting entranced by his music.”

“I, uh-” Arthur did not want to admit his carelessness, and opted to focus on how nice her hands felt as they held him.

Edda threw a worried look back at the water, and stood up.

“You know what? We should probably leave that conversation for later,” she said turning back to him. “We need to mo-“

There was another splash of water as a wet hand grabbed a hold of Eddas leg, throwing her off her balance and pulling her so both her lower legs where submerged under water.

Arthur immediately moved to grab a hold of Edda to pull against the hand dragging her, wrapping his arms around her waist, or at least doing his best to do so with his short dwarf arms.

Edda let out a long string of loud curses as she kicked against the water and held him in a tight, panicked, hug.

Even with their powers combined Arthur could still feel his hands slipping against the pull of the creature in the water, who despite appearing as weak and skinny at first glance seemed to have the strength of a thousand men behind him. If only Arthur could get a proper grip on Edda, if only he wasn’t a tiny dwarf! If we was a human his arms would definitely be long enough to grasp her properly...

He could feel Eddas hold of him slowly starting to slip as well, her kicking doing nothing to stop her descent into the rushing water.

“Miss Edda! Close your eyes!” He shouted to her.

“What!?” Edda shouted back in between her volley of curse words.

“Close your eyes! I need to be human!” He struggled as his grip slipped more and more.

“Wha- Okay!”

Arthur looked down at his now human arms, and lunged forward a bit to fully wrap them around Edda, pulling her completely against his chest.

The tug-of-war continued, but with his improved grip he found himself able to pull her up just enough for her feet to be above water.

Both of her feet’s was now in the grasp of the creature, who dug his fingers deep into the leather of her boots.

He could now make out the tell tale sound of pained breathing in between Eddas swearing, the creature’s grip was hurting her.

“Let her go you bastard!” He shouted down at the water.

“F- the sword- cut!” Edda stammered into his shoulder, followed up by a few more synonyms of the word cut.

It was risky, he would have to let go of her with one hand to be able to pull his sword in the first place, but he was nothing but a risk taker and it was starting to look like they were running out of any other options. He had to be quick though.

“Hold on tight Edda.” He said as he tightened his grip on her with one of his arms as he let go with his other.

“I am!” Edda hissed out, her voice growing a bit hoarse.

Arthur just nodded as he dragged Excalibur out of it’s sheath, and, using that momentum, performed a large swing with it against the creatures exposed arms.

There was yet another sound of water splashing and Eddas feet finally found solid ground as the hands pulling them had disappeared. Lifting his sword up Arthur saw not a single stain of blood as he had expected, but simply one big Red water lily along with it’s wet and clingy stem hanging around the rock on his blade.

“Ow, shit”, Edda hissed against his shoulder, before she started pushing against him. “Move, distance from the murder river!”

Arthur nodded, despite knowing that her eyes was still closed, and walked backwards as quick as he could, while still holding on to Edda tightly. She had almost died, just like he had almost died a moment before that. He couldn’t let his eyes leave the river, it was still in there, the creature, the monster, who was behind all of this.

For a second he could see the creature stick it’s head up above the water, it’s long hair floating around it, before it once again dipped below the surface and disappeared without a trace.

“Fucking shit, are we at a safe distance?” Edda asked.

Arthur sheathed Excalibur, and lifted his free hand to caress the back of her head. Doing his best to make her feel safe.

“We are now, M’lady.” His chest swelled in pride as he felt her relax in his arms.

Edda moved back a bit and opened her eyes.

And then he was the one hanging onto her, as his arms once again became short and stumpy. Edda let out a startled shout as she lost her balance and fell to her side, with him held tightly to her chest.

“Ah, shit,” she hissed through her teeth as she pushed herself up with her elbow, letting go of him. “Sorry, you okay?”

“Am _I_ okay?” He said a bit flabbergasted, she had, regrettably, been the one that took the brunt of the fall, and she was asking if _he_ was okay? “Are _you_ okay Miss Edda?”

She moved up to a sitting position.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I legitimately thought I would die for a moment there, so it could definitely have gone way worse.” She let out a short laughter. “That’s one hell of a story to tell though, ‘Näcken has me in his grasp and I somehow didn’t end up dead’, gonna tell that story next time those farm kids come by the hut.”

“That’t that things name? Nacken?” He shot another look at the river, making sure that the monster still was gone.

“Well,” she moved her legs closer to herself and hissed a bit. “It’s one of them, the one most common around here at least. There’s also the good old ‘Bäckamannen’ or ’Strömkarlen’ and a few more that I can’t remember at the moment.”

Arthur was only half listening as he noticed the pained expression that crossed her face as she moved her feet, and then how her eyes was strangely red and wet, as if she had been crying.

“Sometimes, he doesn’t look like a guy, but a horse, and then he’s usually called ‘Bäckahästen’.” She shrugged a bit. “Asshole is a perfectly fitting name for him, whatever form he takes, though.”

“Miss Edda?” Arthur stood up and put his palm on the side of her face, feeling the slight dampness of it. “Are you sure you’re alright? It seemed like it was, hurting you, really bad.” So bad she had started crying, how had he not heard her cry?

She looked at him in surprise, her hand shooting up to hover above his for a few seconds before she dropped it back down again and adverted her eyes.

“Heh, yeah it hurt as hell, but,” she threw her hands up. “I’m fine now! It’s not like he’s still gripping my legs anymore.” She shot him a crooked grin, as she tried to conspicuously remove his hand away from her cheek.

“Miss Edda-“ He started, growing more and more concerned as she tried to bat away at his worry, but she cut him off.

“Thanks for that by the way, saved my life! Thought I guess that’s just a normal occurrence for you, Mr Hero.” She playfully nudged her fist against his chest. “Saving damsels from dragons all the time and all that.”

“Miss Edda!” He tried again, there clearly was something wrong.

“This was probably not the same as a dragon though.” She moved her face away to look at the river, but the way she rubbed her face with the arm of her shirt made it pretty clear what she was actually doing. “Water is supposedly the polar opposite of fire after all.” She looked at him again, smiling.

“Edda please!” Arthur put both his palms on the sides of her face and looked straight into her eyes. “I’m worried about you.”

She froze, but then she lifted her hands and removed his palms again.

“There’s nothing to worry about, you worry wart.” She snickered, moving to stand up. “I’m perfectly fih-“

Her entire body jolted as she properly stood up, making her freeze in place as she gritted her teeth. She took a deep breath.

“Fine, I’m fine.” She said under her breath, almost like she wasn’t talking to him anymore.

After taking a few seconds standing up, she sat down again.

“Miss Edda, you are clearly not fine!” He said, hovering his hands over her. “If you can’t walk, then I can carry you!”

“It’s fine!” She said grabbing a hold of her boot. “Something probably just got inside my shoe when it was underwater! It’s really nothing to worry-“

She pulled off her shoe, her wet sock coming off with it, to reveal a dark red hand mark around her ankle, just where the creature had held on to her. Arthur looked at it in shock. The creature had held into her foot so hard that he had somehow marked her skin trough her boot!

Edda just smacked her lips.

“So I guess he left me a little souvenir huh?” She let out a short nervous laughter.

Arthur tried to ignore the sinking feeling in his chest and gritted his teeth, how dare that monster hurt her like that! He snapped his head to glower at the river, only to once again be reminded that the creature wasn’t there anymore. He took a deep breath, while he wished nothing but to tear that creature out of it’s hiding place with his bare fists and slice it’s head of, he knew that that couldn’t be the top priority right now. There was a maiden in pain, and he had to be there for her, in any way he could.

“Miss Edda?” He spoke as gently as he could, lifting his hand towards her face again, but freezing as he remembered how she had removed his hands before.

As Edda turned to look at him, she spotted his hand and, to his surprise, lightly pressed her cheek against it, closing her eyes as she did. She hummed for a few seconds before she opened her eyes again and looked at him.

Arthur had found his breath caught in his throat as he felt his hand make contact with her face again, but taking her move as a encourager, he moved and put his other hand on her other cheek.

Watching her melt into his hands made him almost completely loose track of what he was going to ask. He moved his thumbs in a gentle, soothing motion and just looked into her soft eyes.

Then she jolted in pain, and they were back in reality.

Right, her foot.

He looked down to her feet, as they both moved away from the intimate position.

“How’s the other foot? Does it hurt as well?” The creature had been holding both of her legs at one point after all.

“Not, really?” Edda said, but after a short pause she moved to remove the second boot anyway. Revealing that there thankfully wasn’t any mark there as well.

Arthur felt somewhat relieved, at least the monster hadn’t marked both of her feet.

“Maybe he didn’t get enough time to fuck up this one,” Edda said as she touched her unharmed foot. “I think he grabbed the other one first.”

Arthur brought his attention back to the marked foot, kneeling by it to get a closer look. The mark was such a dark colour, especially around the indents of the finger tips.

“You think you can heal this Miss Edda?” He looked up at her. “You can make some more of that red potion right?”

“Yeah, no. That potion requires water and I’m not going to use our drinking water for that, nor am I walking any step closer to that,” she pointed at the river, “death trap today.”

He stood up.

“I can get you the water Miss Edda, if you’re in such pain than the potion would help!” He moved as to get closer to the river, but was stopped by her grabbing his arm.

“Are you-!” She took a deep breath, before sending a strict but soft look at him. “I am not letting you risk your life any more today, we can just get the water from one of the water pumps by the road.”

He turned to her.

“But another pump could be who knows how far away! I can’t have you walk all that way with your foot being like that!”

Edda did not let go of his arm as she looked at him, expression stern, and with eyes filled with barely hidden worry and concern. Worry for him.

Arthur sighed.

“Fine, then I’ll carry you til we find a water pump.”

She shook her head.

“No it’s fine, I can probably throw together something that’ll keep me upright for the time being. It’s to risky for you to carry me considering that we might end up crossing paths with other people on the road anyways.” Edda let go of his arm, pulled up her bag and started rummaging through it.

“But Miss Edda...” Arthur started, but found himself trailing off, not sure what he should say.

Edda smiled at him and lifted her hand to touch something in his hair. Oh right, she had placed something there, he had completely forgotten about that.

“Don’t worry so much, you have done all you can, which is quite a lot. I wasn’t kidding before, surviving that sort of encounter with Näcken is a pretty impressive feat, and I have you to thank for that.” She snickered a little bit. “I need to get you a new charm as well, I hope you can work with this one for now though.”

She removed her hand from his hair.

“Hopefully your image can handle having a flower in your hair for a little while.” She teased him, her lips spread into a genuine and happy grin.

And despite all his worries, Arthur found himself smiling back. Yeah, if it was a gift from her, then maybe his image could handle a little flower.

-

Edda ended up making a sort of makeshift cast with the rags she had in her bag, along with some thin slices of bloodroot and leaves from johns wort that were in direct contact with the bruise. It wasn’t the best solution, but it was the most she could do in the situation and it worked just fine, there was only the occasion aches from her foot now as she walked. All things considered though, it could definitely be worse.

They had looked at the map before departing, right after Edda curiously pocketed the red water lily that got caught on Arthur’s sword, so they had a rough idea of when they would see the next water pump. They were usually located around roadside inns and public resting spots, which tended to be pretty generously scattered around, and according to the map they were only about a few kilometres away from one public resting spot.

So it was just to get over there, get her foot fixed, make a new charm for Arthur, and then continue making their way to Bergeleva.

It was just starting to dawn on her just how much of a mess this day had been so far, and as she looked at the sun slowly nearing the horizon she started to accept that they probably wouldn’t be able to get to an inn before night fall, she could only hope they where able to reach the water pump before then.

On the positive side, Arthur did look really nice with the John’s wort on his hair.

Edda had asked Arthur about his charm as they had begun walking, to which he had sheepishly explained him loosing it, followed by an apology, at which point she reassured him that it was ok. Hell he was hardly the worst person she had met when it came to keeping track on ones amulet, there was a guy that would come to her hut every week for a new charm since he’d always loose his, and he was a local!

Arthur seemed a bit more cheered up and they continued walking, occasionally stopping to pick some herbs by the side of the road. It almost like they had gone back to when they where making their way to Hävelösa, almost.

Arthur had been walking really close, his hand occasionally resting on her hip whenever she made any indication of feeling discomfort, probably in an attempt at supporting her. It mostly just succeeded in making her feel a bit weird and warm, but she was not about to tell him _that_ , so she just rolled with it.

She had even taken the opportunity of him being so close to add on the flowers she would pick into his hair, she wasn’t entirely sure why he was letting her do that. What happened to the whole image thing?

“Okay, maybe I should stop doing this,” she though out loud as she had turned with yet another John’s wort in her hand to realise that there was practically more flowers on his head than hair at this point.

“Huh, why so Miss Edda?” Arthur tilted his head, threatening one of the more loose flowers to fall off.

She couldn’t help but grin at the sight of him, it was sort of, adorable?

“I don’t know why you’re not the one stoping me here, there’s no more space on your head,” she laughed a bit.

Arthur shrugged.

“If you refuse to let me carry you then the least I can do is help carry any other weight that might heavy you down,” he said with a stupid looking grin on his face. “Even if your weights are... flowers.”

She couldn’t help but smile in return, he was being ridiculous again, but with all that had happened today she found herself welcoming it way more.

“Alright then, Mr weight bearer, where am I supposed to put this flower then?” She snickered. “In the front of your shirt?” She added in a joking tone.

Arthur’s grin got somehow even larger.

“If that’s what you desire, my fair lady.” He said, puffing out his chest.

What came out from Edda after that was a bit more than a snort, as she lost her balance in her laughter. Her face hurt from the excessive grinning as she wheezed and practically cackled on the road. The whole thing was way to ridiculous for her to be able to keep face.

“Edda, are you alright!?” She felt his hands under her back, pulling her up to a sitting position.

“Y-yeah,” she took a few steady breaths as she dried the tears that had collected around her eyes. “I’m fine, you’re just, too much sometimes.” She looked at him through squinting eyes.

“Oh,” He said with a puzzled expression. “Is that good or bad?”

“It’s good.” She said, moving her head to properly face him. “I don’t think I’ve laughed this much with anyone else in my entire life.” She lifted her free hand to pat his cheek. “You’re good.”

Arthur smiled at her, not the self assured grin from before, but a soft and sweet one, that made her heart almost stop.

“Thank you Edda.” He said, taking the flower from her loose grip and putting it behind her ear. “You’re pretty amazing yourself.”

Oh god they where so close to each other, why where they so close to each other, abort mission, abort mission!

“Thanks.” Was the only thing she was able to squeak out before she hurriedly got herself up again, laughing nervously. “We should probably keep walking now though, won’t get anywhere by just laying on the ground right?” She said, maybe a bit to loudly. “We have been doing that way to much today.”

“I guess you’re right.” Arthur agreed taking his spot besides her again as they continued their trek to Bergeleva.

The sky was turning a sweet shade of pink, as they finally reached the resting spot with the water pump. Knowing that the healing of her foot and the making of new charm could take a while and that the inn was still a fair bit away, prompted them to just set up camp by the resting spot instead of risking anything.

The healing of her foot ended up involving a bit more of John’s wort then the healing of Arthur’s wounds had, considering the supernatural nature of the creature behind the bruise. The use of John’s wort in the makeshift cast had helped a lot in reducing the magic needed to heal the bruise, but even then she found herself having to get a new cast that included both John’s wort and Catsfoot in order for the last bit of maliciousness that had been put in the bruise to dissipate, which would have to happen overnight.

Arthur had insisted on helping her with her foot so it had been him who bound the cast for her, which he did pretty well, though maybe him kissing the cast after he was done was a little to much.

“Just kissing it better.” He had said with a grin as Edda tried her best to hide the swell of emotions that had came when he had done that. This guy was going to be the death of her at this point, but not in the way that she had first expected when she had met him.

The resting spot did seem to have a campfire spot along a small pile of firewood, so they thankfully didn’t have to go and look for any. Edda was happy about that because that meant she didn’t have to stress as much when creating a new charm for Arthur, the flowers in his hair was nice, but she doubted that they wouldn’t become a nuisance when getting fire wood, and she did not want him to go anywhere without any protective charms of any kind. She, of course, still had to finish the charm before the sun went, since it was way less troublesome to make the Catsfoot circle when there was still some natural light.

Speaking of the Catsfoot, Edda sure hoped she would get the chance to refill it soon enough, as the amount she had in the bottle was shrinking real fast, being used for both the cast, Arthur’s charm and the circle in only one day. She did get a bunch of John’s wort today, but a fair share of that had also been used.

Maybe she could get some more in Bergeleva, they would be able to reach it tomorrow anyway so she probably didn’t have to use more of it until then.

She finished making the charm, it was almost the same as the old one except she had put some John’s wort flower petals inside of it as well. She looked up at Arthur who was occupied with the fireplace, he was squinting and pouting in concentration as he tried to work up the small sparks of flame into a fire. She had taken most of the flowers out of his hair when she had started to work on his charm, leaving only one resting on his ear.

How on earth was it that no one had kissed him yet?

Wait what.

Edda shook her head, where the hell did that come from?

Trying to ignore the strange feeling in her chest, that at this point was starting to become a normal occurrence, she stood up and walked to Arthur, who didn’t seem to notice her as the fire started taking off.

“Congratulations! You have started a fire! Take this fire starting medal as a reminder of this great occasion!” She shouted, dropping the charm around his neck.

Arthur jolted and spun around in surprise, hand on the grip of his sword.

“Whoa, stand down warrior!” Edda said, holding her hand up to him.

“Oh, it’s you Miss Edda.” He said, letting go of the sword, the now free hand traveling down to touch the charm that now dangled on top of his chest.

“Yeah,” Maybe sneaking up behind him hadn’t been that good of an idea, even if it was sort If a split second one. “Sorry about startling you like that.”

Arthur just ginned a bit.

“It’s fine, but should you really be walking around with the foot like that?” He cocked his head to the side in concern.

“Come on, it’s by far better than it was earlier today, I can walk around just fine.” She said with a snort.

“If you say so.” Arthur said, lifting the charm up to his face to look at it better. “Hey, isn’t those yellow bits-?”

“John’s worts petals? Yes, they do have a protecting ability after all and also...” She leaned in a bit to him to touch the John’s wort in his hair. “They did seem to really fit you.”

Arthur looked at her with wide eyes.

Oh no.

She had said that out loud. And touched him.

Crap.

Edda immediately moved away from Arthur, adverting her eyes to look at the sky, the tree’s, the water pump, anything but him.

“So yeah,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. “Hope you like that. I’m going to do the protection circle now!” And then she rushed back to her bag to get the bottle of Catsfoot.

The evening soon drew to a close, night falling around them, they had spent most of it in comfortable silence or with one of them babbling about a topic that interested them, be it fights with monsters or powerful spells.

It was as she was sitting in her nightgown going trough her notebook, looking at the rune spells that she had written down at Hävelösa, and carefully practicing carving them into some sticks she had found by the campsite, as Arthur sheepishly walked up to her with his blanket.

“Miss Edda?” He asked, making her look up from her carving. “What if I ruin the circle again? I do move a lot when sleeping.” He looked away from her as he spoke.

Edda wasn’t sure how to answer, there was a possibility that he would roll out, she could not deny that, but what could she really do about it?

“I could... hammer a pole into the ground and bind you to it?” She replied.

“I would easily tear it from the ground.” He said, matter of factly.

“Oh right, forgot I was dealing with a strong man here.” She said, maybe a bit to sarcastically, but it was pretty late, so much of her usual snark filter had dissipated at this point. She leaned her head back to stare at the starry sky in thought.

“I could... tie you to me? I guess? I’m pretty hefty.” She joked.

Arthur seemed to do a double take, but then he smiled at her.

“You mean that I could hold you, like I did last time? That could work! I don’t think I moved at all after that!” He moved forward to her in excitement.

Edda froze. He took it seriously? What? Oh no.

“I meant like we could tie our hands together or something.” She blurted out in panic. “You don’t have to hold me that’s fine.” She wasn’t sure why he would want to in the first place, last time had been sort of an accident after all.

And yet he seemed to deflate somewhat at her words.

“Oh, well, holding hands could definitely also work.” He smiled at her again, but it didn’t seem to be as cheerful as it had been a moment prior. Had she hurt his feelings? She didn’t mean to do that.

Holding hands had also, not really been what she had meant, but part of her didn’t want to shoot him down again, and another part of her didn’t exactly mind the idea of them holding hands while sleeping.

So she went with it, binding them together by their wrists, making sure that she didn’t bind to tightly around his wrist since it would get bigger as he turned back to a human, but then also intertwining their hands together as they laid down on the ground to sleep.

Not wanting to risk Arthur catching her stare at him, she found herself laying on her back, staring at the constellations on the starry sky. She only really knew two of them, Cassiopeia and The Big Dipper, never having been that good at astrology.

She looked at the night sky, looking for shooting stars like she had many times as a child, though she wasn’t sure why, none of her wishes to the stars had ever really come true.

The soft snoring sound from Arthur broke her out of her trance, and as she looked over she found him curled up with both of his hands holding on to hers.

There came the tugging in her chest again. She turned back to the night sky and her eye caught the sight of a quick line of light that disappeared as soon as it had appeared. She squeezed her eyes shut as she felt Arthur’s warmth all over her hand and arm, and once again made a wish, that he would be free from whatever harm that might try to reach them, that might try to reach her.

And then she fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a bit of a emotional roller coaster to write, but here it is!
> 
> First of, Näcken! I was unbelievably excited about writing him into the story, he’s just such an iconic folklore creature. Also he’s one of the creatures that is still willfully malicious towards humans, mostly because every story about him that I’ve heard involves him tricking or luring someone to thier watery death, and that one time he stabbed a girl because she wouldn’t date him. The way he speaks is somewhat inspired by how he spoke in “Unforgiven: a northern hymn”, which is a really cool horror game based on Swedish folklore that I really recommend. 
> 
> I don’t have much more trivia on this chapter, besides that Water lilies Swedish name, näckrosor, is based on näcken. Otherwise I thank you for reading this chapter! Hope you have a nice day! :)


	12. In which there’s hugs

Harriet looked through her window at the night sky, or more exactly at it’s many many stars that shone bright in it. She lifted her finger to aimlessly count them, to follow the lines of the Big Dipper over and over again. It looked like a pan, or like a carriage without any horses, she wondered what it was that pulled it if it didn’t have any horses, or bulls? Wasn’t there a star-sign for a bull? If there was, she could not find it. Maybe there was an entirely unknown creature that pulled the carriage, but then where was it going?

In the middle of her pondering her eyes caught the sight of what she had actually gone to the window to look for, a shooting star.

Harriet excitedly climbed up on the windowsill, closed her eyes and made a wish.

“I wish... that I could shoot fire out my fingers!” She thought as loud as she could, she wasn’t supposed to say wishes out loud, but the star had to be able to hear it somehow.

She sat like that for a few seconds, waiting for... Well the story her nanny had told her never really specified what it was supposed to feel like when a wish was granted, but she thought, considering her wish, that her fingers would at least get warm.

The warmth never came.

She opened her eyes, and she was no longer on her windowsill, but on a pile of pillows. Surrounded by ladies in fancy dresses ogling her with curious and cautious looks in their eyes. One of them leaned over to whispered something to the woman besides her, and the two of them barely stifled laughter.

Harriet tried to scoot away from the women, maybe hide in the pillows, but as she moved two cold hands came from behind her and took a hold of her face. Or more precisely, her cheeks. Harshly pinching them as a voice behind her giggled.

“My _cute_ little baby sister~” the voice cooed in a sickly sweet tone. The fingers digging into her flesh, threatening to break her skin.

So cold.

Harriet started trashing around in pain, trying to pull the hands away from her, and screaming at the top of her lungs.

The voice only giggled more.

“Well aren’t we fuzzy today?” The hands moved to clamp her mouth shut.

There was a small chorus of mumbles coming from the ladies watching her.

“Oh, don’t judge her to hard.” The voice said, as the hands pushed her back towards the women. “My poor baby sister just doesn’t understand this sort of thing. Or well, she doesn’t understand most things, outside of her silly fantasies.”

The women broke out into giggles along with the voice. Harriet could barely made out singular words as they started to chatter loudly.

“Child” “Simpleminded” “ _Stupid_ ”

She felt as if she was freezing, her hands shaking and goosebumps forming on her arms.

“But, that’s fine!” The voice continued. “I’ll happily lead her to what’s right, she is after all my _cute_ and sweet little sister!”

Harriet wanted to curl into a ball. But she couldn’t as the cold hands pulled her up to stand straight and one of them grabbed her by the jaw to look at the chattering women.

“Now, I told my friends how well your singing lessons have been going and they are so excited to hear you preform to them.”

“Yes!” One of the ladies shouted harshly. “Sing for us song-bird!”

The other women giggled once again as they stared at her, their eyes seeming to grow to overtake their faces.

“Sing! Sing! Sing! Sing!”

Harriet shook as she hung limply in her sisters cold grasp.

“Be a good little sister and sing~!”

Her sisters hair started coming into view and so did her face, as she slowly bent over Harriet, a wide smile on her face that literary went from ear to ear.

And then everything combusted into flames.

It was finally warm.

The flames licked her skin, but it didn’t hurt.

It was... Comforting.

~

-

Arthur was surprised to find that he had woken up before Edda, as well as that she was sleeping soundly, curled up against his chest. He didn’t know how or at what point of the night she had ended up in his arms, but he wasn’t in the position to really complain. Especially as she unconsciously snuggled even closer to him, pressing her soft cheek against his chest, as he moved to repositioned himself.

He felt his heart jump with joy, looking at the soft smile that crossed her face as she cuddled against him. With a content sigh he gently combed his hand though her hair and looked downwhere their hands still laid intertwined and bound together.

He took a second to study her hand, he had before been able to feel the slight callouses of her skin, but now he could properly see the scarring on her hand. There was something strange about Eddas hands though. Being a woman with her profession, constantly picking up herbs from the ground and wavering a knife around doing it, rough hands where to be expected. Eddas hands however, while rough, still had a softness to them, like of those of the princesses he had rescued.

It was odd, but then again, so was Edda as a whole. Which didn’t feel like that much of a bad thing anymore.

He shrugged and returned to enjoying the moment. This was after all what he had hoped to do with her last evening.

Then again, Edda had seemed pretty opposed to the idea herself, so it was probably a good idea to distance himself from her before she woke up. He didn’t wan’t to cause her alarm and stress.

He did his best move away from her without disturbing her sleep, after all that had happened yesterday he was sure she needed it. But as he pulled away from her she jolted forward and threw her free arm around him in a tight hug.

“No! don’t g-“ her panicked voice cut off as her eyes shot open.

There was a second of complete silence, as she stared at him with her mouth gaping.

“M- Edda?” He asked, concerned by how she was acting.

“I’m so sorry.” She said as she pushed herself away from Arthur and sat up. “I don’t know what, came over me. Didn’t mean to invade your space like that.”

She turned herself around, or tried to, her hand was still tied to his, making fully turning away from him difficult. So she just ended up sitting with her back to him, curled into a small ball, and with her bound hand laying awkwardly behind her. She seemed to be breathing irregularly.

Arthur could immediately see that something was off.

“Miss Edda? What’s bothering you?” He asked, putting his hand on hers.

“Nothing,” she said dismissingly. “I just, had a bad dream.”

Arthur scooted closer to her and took a proper hold of her hand, interlinking his fingers with hers again. For a spit second Edda tensed up, but then she relaxed and carefully caressing his hand with her thumb.

“You wanna talk about it?” Arthur asked, hovering a bit behind her. He wanted to comfort her with an embrace, but he didn’t want to scare her with a sudden hug.

“...it’s fine, dreams aren’t real and can’t hurt you. I don’t know why it bothered me so much in the first place.” She let out a small laugh, but it was a lifeless and cold laugh, not like her normal one at all.

Arthur bit the inside of his cheek, so what if the dream wasn’t real! The fact that she seemed seriously distressed by it was reason enough to be concerned about it in his book. He let out a small silent huff and made his way around Edda so he could see her flushed face, which he carefully took into one of his now small dwarf hands.

“You shouldn’t beat yourself up over getting scared by a nightmare Miss Edda, it’s only natural.” He took a small step closer holding her bound hand up to his chest. “Even good ol Arthur here has gotten pretty spooked by a fair share of dreams.”

She snorted a bit at him, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

“Oh? Even the big and mighty Arthur has had nightmares?” She snarked softly.

“I know, hard to believe.” He said with a small shrug. “But you should know that, be it from horrible monsters or nightmares, I’m here to protect you.” He knocked their bound hands against his chest for emphasis and shot her the most charming smile he could muster, hoping it would give the intended effect.

And it did as Edda bursted out in an almost cackling laughter, wheezing as she lifted her free hand up to her cheek and put her hand on top of his, a tint of red still resting on her face. Now that was her real laugh alright. As she seized her laughter she looked at him with a wide toothy grin on her lips.

“I guess, I’ll hold you to that then, Mr hero.” She said, tilting her head to the side, leaning into his palm. “Though I do have to ask how your planning to, protect me, from the second thing? The nightmares?”

“Well,” He took a small but deliberate step closer. “I dunno exactly what causes nightmares, but it seems to me that a lot of it has to do with fear and feeling unsafe.”

“An interesting theory.” Edda said, raising her eyebrows at him and removing her hand from her cheek to gesture with it. “Do go on.”

“That means in order to fight of these nightmare I have to make sure you feel safe.” Arthur said, somewhat proud of his deduction. “And it so happens, that that’s a speciality of yours truly.” He puffed out his chest and flexed his arm muscles, to get his point across.

“Of course It, is...” the snark in her voice quickly died down as a somewhat conflicted look crossed her face briefly, her unbound hand once again moving up to lightly caress the hand he had on her cheek. “Huh, you know what? I don’t actually doubt that.” A small genuine smile spread across on her lips, which was enough to give Arthur a short pause, just to take it in.

“Gorgeous...” he mumbled under his breath, his hand dropping limply down from her cheek.

“Huh? What?” Edda asked, confusion filling her eyes, followed by a look of disappointment crossing her face as his hand went down.

Arthur snapped back to reality, took a step forward and cleared his throat. Edda did strike him as a girl who liked to take things slow, maybe going all out with gorgeous was to much, to fast. He wasn’t really one to dial in his courting, but it wouldn’t hurt to at least try for the sake of her comfort.

“Your smile M’lady,” He said as he reached towards her face to once again caress it. “It’s very... cute.”

As the words exited his mouth, she flinched back as if he as burned her, a brief look of terror and barely contained rage crossing her face. The look quickly melted away however, to a more apologetic and sad one.

“Miss Edda?!” He asked in shock, the look she had shot him, even if it had only lasted for a few milliseconds, felt like a arrow going trough his chest.

“I’m sorry,” she said to him, trying to curl back in on herself. Trying being the keyword since her hand was, still tied to his. “I guess the nightmare still got me a bit messed up. I usually don’t react like that.”

He understood that the nightmare had affected her, but not that it had affected her _this_ strongly. He wanted to know what had happened in it, but since she was clearly not budging on that, he just had to make good on what he had been bragging about a few moments prior.

He took a small step closer to her and lifted his unbound arm, letting it hover above her shoulder.

“Edda?” he whispered softly. “Can I hug you?”

She lifted her head up to look at him, and after a few seconds she nodded, cautiously moving her free arm out to welcome his embrace.

And then he hugged her, feeling her once again, even as he was in his dwarf form, melt into his embrace. He slowly stoke his hand against her back as he heard her contently sigh into his shoulder. Their bound hands were still entangled, and as he gave her hand a gentle squeeze she responded in kind.

They sat like that for a while, just listening to the sound of the wind and enjoying each other’s company. Eventually they moved apart, Edda apologising for holding him too long and Arthur just waving away her worries with a small chuckle.

In order to do any of their morning routines they first needed to get rid of the rope tying them together. So Edda started working on untying the rope around their wrists, her fingers softly grazing over his hand as she worked on it. Her touch so soft, so gentle, just like it had been back when she was healing him by the river. And just like back then, he decided to bask in it.

After that was done they both went on with their separate morning routines, and breakfast. That being said, during their separate morning routines, Arthur could definitely admit to occasionally gaze over to see what Edda was doing and if she was looking as he did his morning training. He decided to get over to her again, as he saw her start to unwrap her cast, asking her if she needed any help with it. She just smiled at him and shook her head.

“Hey, would you look at that!” Edda said with a wide grin as she revealed her foot to the morning sun. “It’s finally gone!”

And so it was, the mark that had been practically indented into the flesh of Eddas foot had completely disappeared without a trace. Arthur leaned over and touched her ankle, feeling that, yes, even the indent from the fingertips were gone.

Edda hitched her breath at his touch, making Arthur’s head shoot up.

“Does it still hurt Miss Edda?” He asked, concern filling him.

Edda pulled her foot back a bit and let out a small laugh.

“No no, it’s fine, you just startled me a bit, that’s all.” She smacked her ankle a few times with her palm. “See? All good.”

He let out a small sigh of relief.

“That’s great, I-“

He was cut off by the sound off rustling and hurried footsteps coming from the tall grass that grew on one side of the camping ground. Both he and Edda immediately tensed up, and he quickly turned to stand between the sound and her, his hand resting on the handle of the sword.

“Stand back Edda! I’m not letting you get harmed again!” He declared, focusing his eyes towards the direction of the noise, which was steadily growing in volume.

“What?” Edda said. “Arthur I-“

The tall grass split in two.

And out of it fell a small child.

Arthur let go of his grip on Excalibur, feeling just a little bit stupid over getting protective over nothing, but then he noticed the tail sticking out of the child’s skirt.

He barely had the time to yelp in surprise as the creature sprang back to life again, scurrying towards them on all fours. Arthur immediately reached to his sword again, but a gentle but firm grip on his arms stopped him.

He shot a surprised look up towards Edda who only gave him a stern one in return, he got the message and dropped his arms.

“Hey little miss!” Edda said loudly towards the creature who just had scuttled past the remains of the protection circle that Edda just had cleaned up. “My friend here isn’t from here, so it would be great if you keeps the, crawling on all fours bit, to the minimum. You’re kinda freaking him out a bit.”

“What? No it isn’t,” Arthur said defensively.

“Aww!” The creature exclaimed, sounding disappointed. “But it’s always the guys that aren’t from here that’s funniest to scare.” She stood up, but then plopped down into a sitting position, crossing her arms as she did.

Arthur could now see the large ears she had, not unlike those of stone troll, but smaller in scale, obviously.

Edda let out a small laugh besides him.

“I’m sure they are little miss,” she said. “but can you please find it in your heart to give up this one opportunity to scare someone.”

The troll pouted.

“Fine, it wasn’t like I was going to do anything though.” She said, but then she brightened up a bit. “That means you owe me a favour though!“

“What?” Arthur exclaimed.

“Yes!” The troll girl said giggly. “Ohh! Do you have some of that strawberry hard candy that the humans have been selling on the market recently?! I’ve really wanted to taste one of those!? Oh and-“

“Nini!!!”

The troll shot up to her feet.

“Ah shoot, she’s already caught up?” She frantically started looking around before she set her sights on Edda. “Hide me!” She rushed forward and ran behind her.

“Whoa, hold on there kiddo.” Edda stumbled back a bit, but Arthur was quick to his feet to steady her with his hands.

He looked up at her, asking for, well, anything. He realised that felt uncomfortably out of his depth, and that she usually seemed to know how to deal with these creatures better than he could.

Edda however looked just as confused as he did, and only sent him a small shrug, as if to say; ‘just go along with it’.

He didn’t get to much time to really figure out anything, as a figure suddenly appeared on the road.

It looked to be a young, attractive woman, with large ears and a tail sticking out of her skirt just as the small troll now hiding behind Edda, but that was somehow not the most striking thing about the woman. No, that was the fact that she was pulling a big cart of lumber, clearly originally built to be drawn by no less than two horses, all by herself.

Arthur was just barely able to snap himself out of his gaping, remembering what had happened last time he was caught doing so, as the lady troll looked over at him and Edda.

“Oh! Hello there!” She said with a wide smile.

“Good morning mrs!” Edda said loudly, and Arthur felt a gentle nudge from her to his arm. It took him a few seconds to remember what she wanted him to do. Him glancing over to see her giving the troll woman a curtsy however made it click in his head and he bowed towards the troll as well.

“Good morning ma’am!”

The troll grinned amusedly at them.

“Thank you, though I feel it would be a bit better if I could find my niece. That rowdy girl has a nose for trouble and I told my sister I would keep her out of it during this outing,” she spoke to them dropping the rains of the cart to lean casually against it. “You haven’t happened to see her by the by? She’s small, but loud enough to make her pretty hard to miss despite that.”

“Y-“Arthur felt something thin and long slap against his back, making him almost stumble forward where it not for Edda quickly putting on of her hands on his shoulder to steady him.

“You ok?” She whispered to him in a concerned voice.

A small hissy whisper then came from behind Edda.

“I’ll curse you to glow in the dark if you tattle on me! Then you can never play hide and seek good ever again!” The troll girl said.

“You’ll what?!” Arthur exclaimed without really thinking, making the troll child let out a long whine as laughter erupted from the troll woman who was watching the entire thing unfold.

“That’s quite the unfortunate hiding place you’ve found Nini!” She wheezed a bit before shaking her head. “Not sure why you even tried though, I could tell were you were hiding the moment I spotted your tail sticking out from it.”

“It was? Shoot.” Nini huffed as she stepped out of her hiding spot, holding her tail securely in her hand.

“Speaking of tails,” The troll woman continued as she beckoned Nini towards her. “Haven’t your mother told you to not hit people?“ She looked up and made eye contact with Arthur. “That did look like one mighty smack, are you holding up okay little man?”

“Ha, yeah, I’m fine,” Arthur said, lifting up his hand to touch Edda’s, which still was on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ve had worse.” Maybe that was a little bit of a lie, his back still did sting somewhat, but then again his shirt seemed to have, thankfully, taken the brunt of the attack. He didn’t know a child that size could hit so hard though, even if the child in question wasn’t human.

Edda furrowed her eyebrows at him, clearly not buying it.

“Well, that’s good to hear!” The troll lady said, she lifted up Nini by the back of her shirt and put her in the cart with the lumber. “Now you stay there, you little mud worm.” She wagged her clawed finger at the child.

“But it’s so boring up here!” Nini whined dramatically, sprawling her body across the lumber. “All the insects here talk about is whether oak or birch is the ‘superior’ tree.”

“Oh yeah, who’s in the lead so far?”

As the trolls banter went on Edda hunched down by Arthur.

“Are you sure your ok? You know I can help if you’re hurt.” She said, looking at him with her soft, but worried eyes.

“Feeling your sweet touch is already healing me plenty.” He murmured out, utterly lost in her soft gaze.

“What?”

“Hey you two!” The troll woman shouted at them, prompting Edda to shoot back up to face her. “Where you headed?”

“Well, uh,” Edda started, sounding confused. “To Bergeleva mrs?”

“Great! We’re on our way to visit family over there, and well,” The troll lady gestured towards Nini on the cart. “I wouldn’t mind some company and extra eyes to keep this little monster in place.” She grinned a friendly grin.

There was a small beat of silence, Arthur looked up at Edda who’s eyes were wide, in what seemed to be wonder.

“We would-” Edda stopped herself to look down at him, as if asking for his opinion. Arthur shrugged, he wouldn’t mind getting a ride. Edda nodded, looked back up towards the troll lady and gave her a curtsey. “We would be happy to.”

—

Edda had never gotten the chance to travel with a troll before, it was sort of exciting, even if the logs weren’t the most comfortable things to sit on.

Arthur had asked about the logs after a few minutes of travel, apparently curious about what they had to do with them visiting family. The troll lady with the really pretty smile, or Snurra as she had told them to call her, had laughed at him and told them she was planning to do some trading in the town while she was there, and that’s what the lumber was for.

“Do you think they have some of that strawberry candy! Oh oh oh! Or cool glass pearls!?” Nini had piped in, followed by her excitedly showing off her collection of glass pearls to the two of them, she was still playing with them as Edda started to look around in her bag for the small glass bottle she had quickly filled with water from the pump, before they had gone to board the cart.

Thinking about that made her feel a bit warm. She had first expected to have to climb on the cart on her own, but before she knew it Snurra had picked her up. In her strong, powerful, arms. Trolls were, really strong, even if they weren’t stone trolls.

And then she had, after securing her grip on Edda, making her let out an undignified squeak, hoisted her up on the cart. Edda had just sat there for a moment, completely dazed. Only being able to think of the dazzling smile Snurra had given her as she lifted her up.

She was only snapped out of her daze by Arthur being dropped into her lap. Which honestly did nothing to help her raising heart and heated face, if anything it had made it worse.

The whole thing had been pretty awkward to say the least.

Her thoughts drifted away from that as she absentmindedly started making some more healing potion using the water in the little bottle. Even if Arthur hadn’t gotten that hurt by the tail slap it still wouldn’t hurt to have some at hand. She wondered why she hadn’t had any prepared beforehand before, and chided herself over it.

“Ohhh, is that magic?” Nini leaned over her shoulder to look as she dropped all the ingredients in and started to mumble the spell. “I didn’t know you were a crone?”

“She’s not a crone.” Arthur butted in as Edda tried her best to continue the spell. “She’s a magician.”

“That’s the same thing! Only crones are cooler!” Nini retorted.

Arthur sputtered a bit.

“A crone is a witch! You’re calling her a witch!”

“So what if I am!? What’s your problem?! Was it a witch that cursed you to be so small?!”

“Okay!” Both Edda and Snurra exclaimed in unison. Not only was it impossible for Edda to really concentrate with the two of them bickering, the fact that the bickering was getting really heated was beginning to worry her. He was bickering with a troll after all, with said trolls aunt just a meter away.

“You two better not start a fight back there, or I might be forced to stop this ride.” Snurra warned, playfulness in her tone, but still with a slight hint of seriousness.

“Yeah,” Edda agreed first looking over at Nini, who only pouted a bit. “Let’s calm down a...bit...” she trailed off as she turned to look at Arthur who’s face had gone pale.

“Arthur?” She asked.

Arthur just turned his wide eyes towards Nini.

“How’d you know...?” He mumbled out.

“What? That you are cursed?” Nini cocked her head to the side.

A small, but throaty and nice, laugh came from Snurran.

“We can smell it little man, your entire body smells of a curse.”

Nini just shrugged. “Everything smells to me. It was the insects who told me, you turned into a large human when we all looked away and they saw it happen.”

“The...insects?” Arthur said, sounding dumbfounded.

Edda felt a strange tension in the air, which she did not like, at all. She carefully put a hand on Arthur’s shoulder, attempting to comfort him.

“Alright, now that we got that out there let’s mo-“

“Wait!” Nini exclaimed. “Was I right? Was it a witch that cursed you?!”

Oh, for the love of, Edda thought to herself as she looked over at her. Some things really stayed the same, children will always be nosy.

“No, she wasn’t a witch.” Arthur spoke up before Edda got to correct Nini. “I...I just mistook her for one at first.”

Edda snapped her head back to look at Arthur who looked as if he was trying to hide away in his collar. She was torn between her immediate concern for him, and the urge to pull out her notebook to jot down this new revelation. Those two feelings was then followed by shame for even feeling torn between those emotions in the first place.

What was there to note down anyway, she already knew he had done something to offend the fairy that had cursed him. Knowing exactly his method of insult made no difference.

Oh, now was not the time to think about this! She needed to, do...something...

She quietly resealed the bottle of almost-potion, dropped in into her bag and moved her now free hand to rest upon his, as her other hand drew small soothing (or at least she hoped they were) circles on his shoulder with it’s thumb.

“Hey, what’s done is done. No use in dwelling on the past.” She tried, she was never the best at comfort.

“I,” He took a long deep breath, intertwining his hands with hers, but still looking away from her. “I attacked her. I though she was a witch so I attacked her! She was already vulnerable. Hurt! On the ground!” He squeezed her hand, turning his head, just so she could see his scared and shameful eyes peek out at her. Before he turned his face away from her again “And I still lifted my sword to attack her.”

“Huh.” Edda uselessly said, the cogs in her head spinning so much they created sparks as she frantically tried to find what to say. She had experienced people confiding in her before, a lot of people in the town had though she was an excellent person to tell their deep dark secrets to, for some reason. But this was the first time a man had almost tearfully admitted to assaulting a fairy under the belief of said fairy being a witch.

“Well...” she started, moving her hand to his opposite shoulder to give him a half assed hug. “It sounds like you regret doing, that. And she did get back at you with the whole curse thing. So... The best you can do is to do better, become a better person.” She leaned in to him, just a bit. “And for what it’s worth I think, like I said yesterday, that you’re pretty...good.” She gave him a few pats on his shoulder.

“You’re not very good at this.” Nini said, as she sat and watched them from the other side of the cart.

“I know,” Edda, turning her head, hissed out in the softest voice the could muster, not forgetting who’s chart she was in. “I’m trying my best. I don’t preform well under pressure.”

Then she felt Arthur lean closer into her as he let out a small breathy chuckle. She turned her head to be blinded by his sweet eyes looking up at her.

“Don’t know about that Edda, I think you’re doing a pretty good job.”

As she looked at him Edda felt like she once again lost her ability to think.

“Uh,” she stuttered, scrambling to find something to say. “You want a hug?”

“That would be lovely.” He said moving up on her lap, letting her envelop him in her arms and her baggy shirt sleeves.

Her heart rate slowed down just as fast as it had raised and she soon relaxed, this wasn’t the first time she had held him, but it never ceased to amaze her how, nice, it was to do it.

The amused laughter of Snurra and the unamused groans of Nini rang through her ears as she hugged him tighter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Sorry for the wait, school happened!  
> I think I’ll keep any folklore comments till next chapter, since we have not yet left the cart of Snurra in this chapter and also it’s pretty late as I type this.  
> This chapter was a bit shorter than planned since I decided to end it a bit earlyer than originally planned, to get something out before the end of this month. Which while a bummer, means I might be able to go deeper into some of the ideas I have for the cart ride than I originally thought!  
> Either way, I hope you guys liked this chapter and have a nice day! :)


	13. In which trolls fly and flowers are picked

“So how about that curse little man, any attempts at breaking it yet?”

Edda looked up at Snurra from the potion she had started to work on after releasing Arthur from her arms, and so did Arthur, who was still, for some reason, sitting in her lap. She had tried not to think about him being there.

“The curse?” Arthur said, at first sounding oddly confused. “Oh right! Yeah, I’ve been at it, for a long while now... unsuccessfully...” he hunched over a little, before snapping up straight again “But, I think miss Edda might be able to break it.”

“Oh? How’s that curse breaking going then Miss magician?” Snurra asked, sounding a bit intrigued.

Edda shifted slightly on the log she was sitting on.

“Well, I’m still trying to figure out any weak points in the fairy’s magic I could exploit, but I guess it’s, going.” She scratched the back of her head, and explained the current plan of action they had.

Snurra nodded along and hummed a bit.

“Sounds like you still got quite the work ahead of you two.” She cocked her head to the side as she seemed to gaze along the road she was walking on. Edda found herself just a bit entranced in the way the sun shone on Snurra’s hair, but quickly snapped out of it. “Well, I wish you luck in you mission.” Snurra finally continued. “I would like to aid you, but magic was always my sisters strong suit, not mine.”

“Yeah my mom is great! Her cousin is this lady that hangs out in a lake and they learned a lot of magic together!” Nini butted in, her face gleaming with excitement.

Snurra laughed at her.

“That sjörå is my cousin too you know,” she shot a quick, amused, smile over her shoulder. “That’s why we’re planning to visit her after we see uncle Grävegrus, remember?”

“Wait.” Arthur said suddenly. “Trolls can do magic?! Is that why you said you where going to curse me?” He turned his head to look at Nini who looked like a dear in headlights.

“W-“

“Nini...” Snurra turned her head to Nini and chocked up en eyebrow. “Did you threaten to curse the little man?”

“...Maybe.” Nini answered, absentmindedly playing with her tail. “It was just a glow in the dark curse though...” she pouted “it wasn’t like it was going to kill him.”

“Oh!” Snurra said in a happy tone, “Then I guess sis would be happy to hear about this little incident.”

“No don’t!” Nini dramatically fell too her knees. Edda flinched a bit at it as doing that on a pile of logs did not look very comfortable. “She would lecture me for days!!! And force me to eat the same oatmeal that grandpa eats, that you know tastes boring and yucky!”

“I have no sympathy for you, small prisoner,” Snurra snickered.

Edda looked from the child, to her aunt, and then to Arthur, who looked just as lost for words as her.

“I mean,” Edda started, keeping her eye on Arthur as she spoke. “It’s not like the curse would have worked in the first place, since both of us are wearing protection charms...”

“So no harm, no foul.” Arthur finished, seemingly have caught on what she was hinting at and agreeing with it. “M’lady here was already protecting me from any extra curses going my way.” He gestured broadly with his hand and shot Edda one of his stupid grins, making her snort at him.

“Wait! What do you mean ‘protective charm’?” Nini said shooting up from her knees, seemingly forgetting about what she was doing a second prior, and furrowing her brows in confusion. “And why would it stop me from cursing that tattle tail?!” She pointed at Arthur.

“Oh,” said Snurra, raising her eyebrow a bit. “I guess your mom hasn’t told you about those yet. They’re small charms that protects humans from getting harmed by magical creatures.”

“No small charm can stop me! My mom is great at magic and so am I!” Nini turned towards Arthur and raised her hand.

The hand started to glow.

And then she was forcefully ejected out of the cart, landing with a distant thud on the fields of grass that was surrounding the road.

The cart stopped as everyone turned to look over where Nini had been thrown, and after a beat of silence, Snurra burst into roaring laughter.

She dropped the reigns and leaned against the cart as she wheezed.

“Did you see how she flew!?” She almost started coughing from her laughter. “Incredible!”

The absolute mortified feeling that had filled Edda as Nini had launched off, was replaced by confusion as she looked at Snurra doubling over in laughter. Wasn’t she at all angry that her niece had been blasted off?

She voiced her confusion, making Snurra look up at her, and shake her head, letting out a few more strings of laughter as she did.

“Don’t worry Miss magician, that girl can handle getting thrown a few yards just fine. One of her favorite things to do as a toddler was to get a giant to chuck her over a whole town so she could look down at it from above, and move really fast.” She waved dismissingly with her hand and shot her a bright grin.

“As a toddler?!” Arthur asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, she called it ‘up fwast’,” Snurra snickered, straightened up her back and let out a loud sigh. “Either way, I better go get her before she realises that she can make a run for it into the grass. Keep a look on the cart while I’m gone.”

And so she walked off towards Nini, quickly picking up her pace as Nini’s distant figure started moving. Leaving Edda and Arthur alone in the cart.

There was a small silence as Edda looked down on Arthur in her lap, who looked back at her with a expression showing that he was still thinking about toddler Nini being thrown by a giant. Strangely enough something about his expression seemed to make her stomach clench just a little bit. She ignored it.

“...So, how are you liking the ride so far? Not every day you get to catch a ride with a troll.” She said, trying her best to start up a conversation.

Arthur’s head shot up to look at her and after a few seconds of just looking at her he gave her a small grin.

“It’s different!” He said “But not in a bad way!” He held his hands up defensively.

She laughed slightly.

“Don’t worry, I get it.” From what she had gathered about him so far it did seem that getting a ride from a magical creature, of which he before had admitted to have fought with, was something entirely new to him. She was happy that he at least seemed to be taking in the experience well enough. “I’ve never done this as well, it’s a new experience for both of us.”

“So getting rides from trolls isn’t something usual around here?” He asked, looking just a bit surprised.

“I mean, maybe it is,” she shrugged. “I’ve spend most of my time staying put at home. I’ve only really traveled like once before about, two years ago.” After she settled down by the town she had found herself really liking, she only really walked far enough needed to pick herbs, which usually ended up being not to far.

“Why did you travel back then?” He asked, curiosity shining in his sweet eyes, as he leaned against her just a bit, moving his legs so they were on each side of her.

“Oh.” She took a pause to think of how she could explain it without revealing anything. “I guess I just wanted to see the rest of the kingdom.” She shrugged. “Also...” she started, unsure of she really should say anything more. “I kinda wanted get my first taste of independence, which I kinda got from travelling. Just me and my surroundings.”

“Wait! You traveled alone?” Surprise and worry shot through his eyes.

“I didn’t exactly have anyone to travel with at the time.” She said with a shrug. Sort of hard to have anyone to travel with when you were trying to distance yourself from every person you ever knew.

“But,” He started. “It’s dangerous to travel alone, right?”

“I didn’t see that stop you, mr adventurer.” She snarked playfully, lightly pressing her index finger against the tip of his nose. She couldn’t help but laugh a little at the surprised look on his face as she did so. “Besides,” she lifted her finger away from his nose, barely noticing him lifting his hand up to his face as she did. “I did already know how to act in order to stay safe out here, so I was hardly rushing out unprepared.”

“But, what about that water monster?” Arthur leaned towards her in urgency. “I was barley able to save you back there. If you had been there alone then-“

“I wouldn’t have gone close to the moving water in the first place, and I didn’t.” She put her hand on his cheek this time, focusing her gaze on his eyebrows, as she found it strangely hard to look into his big shiny eyes without feeling that tightness in her chest again. “Going to flowing water alone is generally a bad idea, and I knew that two years ago as well. The only reason I went to the river yesterday is because you where there with me.”

“...Oh.” He uttered softly, and in the corner of her eye she could see the happy crinkle around his eyes.

Her heartbeat started increasing again. Oh no.

“Also, it was two years ago and I’m still here in the flesh, so don’t be such a worry wart.” She grinned, moving her hand to softly push against his shoulder, hoping that her cheeks hadn’t yet gotten any visible colour.

Arthur laughed softly.

“Your right m’lady, what’s important is that your safe now.” He smiled brightly at her. “A bit pointless of me to worry about that whole thing in the first place.” He chuckled, looking a little embarrassed.

Edda laughed with him, though half of it was in an attempt to distract herself from her still steadily increasing heartbeat. She closed her eyes in laughter, only to be reminded by his physical presence even more as the weight on her lap immediately increased.

“Oh, I’m sorry M’lady.”

Edda snapped her eyes opened again as Arthur started shifting his weight on her lap, he looked up at her with a slightly apologetic look.

He said something to her that she couldn’t register, as her mind was stuck, on the feeling of his breath just grazing her face and his body leaning against hers. Why was she stuck on this? She had hugged the man just a few minutes ago, which, yes, had made her slightly tingly, but nothing like how she felt now.

Not only was these weird emotions horrid to experience, but they also just had to be so weirdly inconsistent to!!!

“Edda? Are you ok?” Arthur’s words finally reached her.

Had she just been staring into space for a few seconds? Shit.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She said, grinning what she hoped was a normal looking grin. “Don’t worry about it.”

Arthur looked slightly sceptical, but then he shrugged and smiled back at her.

“If you say so Edda.”

And so they just sat there for a few minutes, Eddas heartbeat slowly and steadily slowing down as she finished the potion she had been working on.

As she sealed the bottle, and put it back into her bag, she looked up towards where Snurra had gone to fetch Nini, but it didn’t seem like she and Nini was coming back to them anytime soon.

“Man it’s sure is taking them a while huh?”

Arthur seemed to shift in her lap, probably to look where she was looking.

“Huh, yeah. You think-“ he cut himself of mid sentence, making Edda look down at him as he squinted his eyes. “Is that? The little troll lass’s pouch?”

He pointed at the grass by the roadside, whereupon, like he said, Nini’s small pouch, in which she had stored the glass pearls she had shown them before, laid. A few of the precious pearls had rolled out of the pouch onto the grass.

“Looks like it. It must have fell off when she was thrown of the cart.” Edda said, still feeling just a bit guilty over that. “I should probably pick that up, it would be a shame if she lost all those-“

“There’s no need for that M’lady!” Arthur said as he scrambled out of her lap to stand up besides her. “I’ll retrieve the little bag!” He gestured towards his chest proudly, grinning his, at this point, signature stupid grin at her.

“Uh, alright then?” She said, a little confused, but still willing to roll with his strange little whims.

His smile widened and he immediately jumped out of the cart towards the pouch.

“Make sure you pick up the ones that fell out of the bag as well,” she said as she started looking through her bag for her notebook, remembering that she still had things she wanted to do with the explosion spells she had been working on yesterday evening. 

“I will!” Arthur answered.

There was a short beat of silence as Edda flipped through her notebook for the correct page, the spells she had done yesterday was fully functional ones, or so she hoped, she had yet to try them out. They would need to have the channeling spells added too them to be able to be safely tested after all. That was probably the next step she would have to take with them, she thought to herself as her hand grazed over the runes for the channeling spell that she had written down by the explosion spell.

“Hey, Edda?” Arthur’s voice shook her out of her thoughts. “The inside of a bag usually don’t glow right?”

She looked over at Arthur, who has holding up the pouch for her to see that, yes, the inside of the bag did appear to have a faint glow. Returning the notebook to her bag, she leaned over the edge of the cart.

“Maybe she enchanted it? She did say she was practicing magic.” Edda said, admittedly pretty intrigued by the pouch, but knowing better to not get caught ogling an item that belonged to a magical creature. “Either way, you should probably still bring it back up here.”

“Of course,” Arthur said with a small laugh, properly closing the pouch as he did. “Should i pick some plants for you while I’m already down here?”

“Oh, sure! But only of you’re ok with it.” She felt somewhat guilty over the idea of forcing him to do something like that. It was stupid since he had been the one to bring it up in the first place, but that didn’t stop the feeling from being there.

“It would be my pleasure, my fair lady.” He said with a stupid grin and a slight bow.

She snickered a bit, pushing down the feeling of warmth in her chest.

“If you say so,” she leaned forward to softy tap his nose again. “My mighty Knight.”

His eyes seemed to shine even brighter as he grinned wider.

That strange feeling blossomed up again, so she adverted her eyes from his and started looking for any useful plants that he could pick up.

“Oh! There’s some John’s wort over there!” She pointed at the yellow flower that she just spotted.

“On it!” Arthur declared, rushing up to the plant and moving to pick it up.

“Wait!” She shouted, as she went to pull out her knife and held it out to him by the blade. “Use this to remove it!”

“Oh, right.” He said, reaching up to, in an oddly gentle way, accept the knife from her. She tried to ignore how his fingers softy grazed hers as he did.

Then he quickly started to amass a small bundle of plants as he eagerly picked up whatever plant Edda would point out. There was a few Frog leaves, some John’s wort, one blood root that was growing oddly close to the road and even a Northern bedstraw.

Edda wasn’t the only one looking around, Arthur would occasionally point out a flower he recognised or ask if a flower he didn’t recognise was useful. Which she would happily talk to him about.

“Does that one do anything?” He said, gesturing at a small peach coloured flower that stood a bit further in the grass.

She had to squint a bit to properly make the flower out, but then she recognised it.

“Oh yeah! That’s a Frog's-stomach!” She had to stop and laugh slightly at the look of surprise and shock that crossed over Arthur’s face as he heard the name. “It’s good at soothing burns.”

“...Why would it be called Frog’s-stomach if that’s what it does?” He looked at her with a pained and confused expression.

“If you think that’s weird, it’s also used for ‘love divination’, which I like to think makes the name, infinitely more odder... and fantastic.” She snickered, leaning against the edge of the cart.

“Love divination?” He said, his face lighting up in... Wonder?

“Uhh, yeah.” She straightened up a little. “You’re supposed to take two of them and hang them over the bed while you sleep. If when you wake up the two flowers are turned towards each other, then your love is reciprocated, but if they are turned away from each other, then it’s not.”

“Sound like I can’t do it with only one of them then...” he muttered as he looked at the flower, making Edda slightly confused, what was he talking about? He turned his head to look at her again.“Have you ever tried it before Edda?”

“Nah,” she said, somewhat uncomfortable “Never been in love, so I’ve never seen a reason to use it like that. I’ve just used it for burns.”

“Oh...” he said, in an odd, conflicted, tone that she couldn’t quite place.

Edda felt a oncoming uncomfortable silence and acted quickly.

“Either way you can pick it-“”Do you want me to pick it-“

They both quickly shut up, realising that they had spoken over each other. She shot him an awkward smile as she did a “go ahead” gesture, he responded with a nod and a similarly awkward smile.

She watched as he carefully, but somewhat clumsily, removed the flower from the ground. Moving as if he was scared of tarnishing the knife he was holding. Even as she watched him doing something so mundane, she still felt the odd warm feeling in her chest, it somehow never having left the entire time as she had happily bantered with him over the flowers.

“I think that’s enough plants for now.” she said, as he added the Frog’s-stomach to the bundle. “Thanks for taking the time to pick some, by the way, I was a bit worried about missing out on them since we’re not, you know, traveling on foot right now.”

“I thought so.” Arthur said with a soft smile, “You always seemed so excited about these plants, so it would have been a damn shame if you were robbed of the opportunity to pick them this time.”

“I wouldn’t put it quite that dramatically,” she said, snickering at his words. Still, his thoughtfulness was, touching. He really was quite the sweetheart.

He laughed lightly with her and then walked up to the cart to dramatically present the plants to her, almost like a bouquet.

“Your herbs, M’lady.”

A ridiculous sweetheart, she thought to herself as she accepted the plants from his hand, once again trying to ignore the fluttering in her chest as his knuckles ran against her palm when he released the plants to her.

“Again, thanks, but,” she smiled at him. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

His strange half lidded look was replaced by one of realisation.

“Oh, right!” He smiled sheepishly at her, handling over both the bag and her knife.

She couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh as she took the items. The bag was safely put on the spot that Nini had previously claimed for herself, and she’d managed to not awkwardly touch his fingers as she took he knife back. She fumbled with trying to sheath the knife with one hand, not yet having put away the plants.

She heard a small grunt and the sound of the cart creaking as she finally got the knife in it’s place, and turned to see Arthur suddenly sitting just a few inches away from her again. She jumped a bit in surprise.

“Oh! Sorry Edda, I didn’t mean to startle you!”

“It’s fine!” She waved her hands at him as she regained her bearings. “I see that you got back up by yourself, I was thinking that I was going to help you up.”

“Oh.” He said, his eyes widening, “I can jump back down again if you want.” He looked at the edge of the cart and then at her.

“You don’t need to do that.” She laughed and nudged his shoulder with her fist.

They spent a little while sorting and putting the plants in her bag, the frogleaves going into the container with all the rest frogleaves and the John’s worths being bound together with the other John’s worths and so on. It was just as Arthur closed the frogleaf bottle one final time and handed it over to her as the sound of grass crunching reached their ears.

They both looked up to see Snurra just stepping out of the grass, holding a sour looking Nini by the hand.

“-I’m sure we can get you some new ones if we can’t find them.” Snurra said to Nini.

“But I wan’t my old ones back, they’re special!” Nini whined, throwing her gaze all over the grass as if looking for something.

Oh right.

Edda, putting the frogleaf bottle back into her bag, was just about to say something before Arthur moved to snatch up the purse from where she had laid it on the cart.

“Hey little miss! You dropped this before!” He held up the purse so she could see it.

Nini gasped, rushed towards the cart and with an impressive jump got herself up in front of Arthur, who stumbled back in surprise.

“Where did you find it? I looked all over the field but I couldn’t see it anywhere?” Her eyes shone in excited happiness as she made grabby hands at the pouch.

“You had dropped it just by the side of the road, so Arthur spotted it and went to pick it up.” Edda explained, feeling the happiness Nini was beaming out infect her.

“Really!!!???” Nini bounced in place.

“Yeah,” Arthur chuckled pleasantly, dropping the pouch into Nini’s waiting hands. “Some of the pearls had fallen out, but I’m pretty certain I managed to pic em all up.”

“Oh! Let me check.” She almost tore open the bag and then after poking around in it for a few seconds, her face broke out into the biggest grin Edda had ever seen. “They’re all there!”

“Good to hea-“ Arthur was cut off as he was pulled into a bear hug by Nini.

“Thank you mister Tattle tale! Maybe the crone lady was right about you!” She said, lifting him off the ground.

“No problem,” Arthur squeaked, but then his eyebrows furrowed, “Right about what? Also don’t call h-“

“You are good!” She said, giving him a final squeeze before dropping him back down on the cart.

“Oh,” He said, wobbling a little bit, prompting Edda to move to steady him by his shoulder. His hand immediately shot up to touch hers, his mouth formed into a dumbfounded ‘o’. “Thank you?”

“No prob!” Nini grinned a toothy grin before turning around and plopping down on her designated spot on the cart, all her interest returning back to the pearls.

Arthur turned to Edda and his shining eyes met hers, his shocked face morphing into a wide grin. Making her heart almost jump out of her chest at the sight.

“Well,” Snurra clapped her hands together loudly, startling Edda, just a bit. “Now that that’s all over, how about we continue forward? The day’s still young, but I did say we would be there around midday.”

And so the ride finally started up again, with Arthur sitting himself down by Edda, eventually starting to tell some of his adventuring tales to fill the silence. Edda listened to him as she returned to her rune spells, enjoying the pleasant sound of his voice and starting to carve the channeling spell into the sticks she had carved the explosion spells on before.

“-so I grabbed the evil wizards staff out of his hands and snapped it in half, breaking the curse he had set on the land in the process.” He said, sounding pretty proud of himself.

“What! Didn’t you say it was an oak staff or something!” Nini exclaimed, having become enraptured by Arthur’s stories. “That’s hard for humans to break with their bare hands, right aunty?”

“Well, I’m sure there are some humans capable of doing something like that.” Snurra said with a small chuckle. “Remember that story the skogsrå of Tråtappa woods told of the human she meat that could bend steel with their bare hands?”

“Ohhhhh right.”

“Yeah,” Arthur agreed, his eyes catching Eddas as she glanced up from her work for a moment. He grinned one of his dumb grins at her and flexed his arm muscles. “These bad boys are fully capable of breaking evil objects, as well as for protecting lovely, and smart, maidens.”

Edda just breathed heavily trough her nose at him before returning her eyes to her carving. He sure was fond of saying stuff like that, she guessed it was a cultural thing she hadn’t quite grasped, it wasn’t like he was actually flirting with her or anything.

“...You’re weird.” Nini bluntly stated, prompting some stuttering from Arthur, and pleasant laughter from Snurra. And Edda, she was just restraining herself, opting to snicker a bit into her fist. Nini wasn’t exactly wrong in her assessment.

“H-hey, didn’t you just say I was good a few minutes ago?” Arthur sputtered out.

“Yeah? You can be both. And you are both.” Nini said with a tone of faux authority.

Arthur attempted to say something to that but quickly seemed to admit defeat. Looking up from her work again, Edda saw him crossing his arms while looking lost thought. She couldn’t help snicker a little at him again, but then she moved out her hand to pat his shoulder in support.

“Nothing wrong with being a bit weird.” She said, immediately feeling warmth in her face as he looked up at her with his big shiny eyes. She turned her gaze back to her work in a hurry, but she wasn’t quick enough to miss the sweet smile he gave her.

“So, what happened next!?” Nini shouted impatiently.

“Huh?” Arthur said in a confused voice, before he seemed to remember what he had been talking about before. “Oh right! Uh... So after I broke the staff, with my bare hands, and the curse from the land was lifted, we went to make sure the princess was unharmed...”

Edda zoned out, she was not in a mood to hear about princesses at the moment, the memory of yesterday still fresh in her mind. She didn’t like to think about him wanting to ‘save’ Harriet.

She shook her head and tried to focus back on her carving. One problem at the time, just make sure that he doesn’t find out and deal with the possible problems of him trying to find her when it comes up.

The final rune came out a little bit crooked, but Edda was pretty sure it would still work just fine, now she just had to carve the channeling spell on something else that didn’t have an explosion spell on it. 

Ah, shit, she hadn’t brought any uncarved sticks with her... Maybe she had something else on her that she could carve it on? She rummaged in her bag, the pleasant sound of Arthur talking still somewhat reaching her ears, but not enough for her to really hear what he was saying. Her rummaging was fruitless and she found herself feeling slightly guilty for not listening to what Arthur was talking about, he always seemed to pay attention to what _she_ was talking about after all...

Edda sighed as she dropped the enchanted sticks back into her bag, and shook her head in an attempt to zone back in to the present, she could probably figure out the final part of the channeling spell later, maybe she could find something of use in Bergeleva.

“-and so I carried the princess back to her family, safe and sound.” Arthur concluded, looking quite proud of himself.

Edda had to physically stop herself from flinching, man hearing that out of, whatever, the context for it was, did not work well with the awful twisting feeling that was already stewing in her body. She had to remind herself that he wasn’t talking about her, and that she was going to be, just, fine so long she doesn’t let anything slip. She looked away from him and tried to steady her breaths.

A warm hand was on her arm.

“Miss Edda, are you feeling alright?” Arthur said, his voice thick with concern.

Looking at him, she couldn’t help but feel some sort of tightening I her chest, his sweet worry for her well being, his shiny wonderful eyes... Warmth spreading from where he was touching her on the arm...

He tilted his head to the side.

Oh no, why was her hearth pounding. Wait, she was staring, why was she staring!? He asked her a question, she needed to answer it!

She tore her gaze away from him and looked to the road.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine, just, remembered, a bad memory.” She staggered through the sentence.

“Hey,” Snurra suddenly spoke up, seemingly stopping Arthur from just saying something. “Speaking of princesses, there sure is a lot of fuzz about princess Harriet nowadays.”

Oh no.

-

Arthur blinked a few times at the mention of the missing princess, especially at how nonchalantly it had been brought up, not to mention this was the first time in a while she was referred to as something else besides “the princess” or “the missing princess”. That did not however distract him from noticing the way Edda seemed to tense up at the mention of her.

“Yeah,” Nini flopped back against the logs, “That’s why there’s so many new people around right? Mom said that they where looking for her right?” There was a very short pause of a few seconds. “Is that why you are here Mister?” She looked at Arthur.

“Oh, yeah.” Arthur said, only half of his attention on the two others, as he gently rubbed Edda’s arms, who was clearly uncomfortable, though it seemed like she was trying to hide it by giving him a strained smile as he tried to comfort her.

“You know,” Snurra started, “I’m pretty sure the royal family hasn’t gotten involved in the search yet, isn’t that sort of strange? Couldn’t they just send out one of those metal animals the prince had been making to find her?”

Arthur had to do a double take, his hand movement stopping, the prince’s what now?

“Like Prince Gustav would ever care enough about her to use them.” Edda scoffed.

Arthur looked at her in surprise, did she really think so little about royalty that she thought the prince didn’t care about his own sister? He voiced his confusion to her.

Snurra laughed lightly.

“The little mans got a point, that’s quite the bold accusation to level on the prince, don’t you think?”

“Hey, look!” Edda sputtered, looking just a bit unsure. “That family didn’t say shit about her being away from the castle until everyone started making a big deal about it. That sounds a lot like them not caring about her.” She turned to Arthur. “You talked about it when we met remember?”

He nodded, he had said that. And it was still a thing he found to be somewhat strange, two years was a pretty long time for a princess to be gone without a single word. Though now when he thought about it it was also pretty odd that it took so long for the people outside of the royal family to notice the absence of a princess.

He didn’t think about that more however as he noticed Edda starting to pull her legs into herself, hugging them, much like she had done that morning. He scooted himself a bit closer to her, moving so both his hands was on her arm.

“Maybe she didn’t want to be found,” Nini pondered out loud, ”maybe she thought it was boring to be a princess.”

“Boring?” Arthur said a bit caught off guard, looking over at Nini, “why would she think it was boring?” Sure, it was a lot of work and occasionally a lot of pressure and maybe even sometimes it involved having some pretty dull meetings, but being royalty was in his experience far from boring.

“You can’t run in mud and get dirty when you’re a princess.” Nini said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Wha...” Arthur started, but stopped as Edda bursted out in near to cackling laughter, throwing her head back with her hand on her face.

“S-Sorry” she croaked out in between her wheezing, her lips spread out in a happy grin as she tried to contain herself. “It’s just-“ She let out a small belt of laughter again. “Oh gods, I’m tearing up.”

Arthur didn’t exactly get why she was laughing so hard, but that didn’t matter. Her squinted eyes shone in the light, as she shakily tried to dry the tears for her eyes with the back of her hand, and as her gaze meet his he could feel his heart beating faster. She looked downright divine. He barely noticed how his arms went slack at the sight.

Edda leaned onto Arthur, putting her, now free, arm over his shoulders. Taking deep breathes, her laughter slowly subsided.

“Oh,” she breathed out “I’m sorry, that got way out of hand.” She shook her head, her dark brown locks shining in the sunlight, and looked up towards Nini, shooting her a finger gun. “Absolutely love your priorities though.”

“Whoa,” Nini said in awe. “You even laugh like a crone.”

What?

“Hmm, yeah, I can definitely hear it.” Snurra hummed In agreement.

“She doesn’t sound like a witch!” He said, tearing his gaze away from Edda to look at Nini.

“Come on! That was almost a perfect witch laugh!” Nini said, putting her first against her sides defiantly.

“Her sounding ‘almost’ like a witch doesn’t mean she actually so-“ he cut himself off as he felt Edda remove the arm she had over his shoulder, moving up from him as she did, and put her hand on his head, petting him.

“Nah, she’s got a point, it does sort of sound like a witch cackle.” Edda grinned. “Plus, hardly the first time I’ve gotten that, sort of surprised that you’ve yet to point it out to be honest.”

“I wouldn’t say that to you!” He said, frankly shocked that she even thought that. “Your laugh is, unique, but I think it’s wonderful.”

Edda’s grin softened, her hand moving from the top of his head to his cheek.

“I wouldn’t have held anything against you if you said I sounded like a witch, but,” the side of her lips twitched a bit in silent laughter. “Thank you for the flattery I guess.”

Her rough yet soft hand moved gently against his cheek, and he couldn’t help leaning into it, embracing the affection she was giving him.

“Anytime, M’lady.” He managed to mumble out.

The moment lasted only for a few seconds, Nini seemingly having become bored of seeing them just gaze at each other, which honestly, he probably couldn’t be to mad about. She was a child after all, and there was plenty of children that he had met before that couldn’t care less about romance.

“Sooooo, What was you doing with the knife and sticks before?” She asked Edda.

“Oh, I was just making some spells I saw in a book a while back,” she said, moving her hand away from his cheek. “It’s nothing big really just a thing I’m messing around with for fun.”

“Some spells?” Both he and Nini said in unison. He had assumed she had been doing something magical, but he had sort of thought it was some other sort of charm or something like that, not a spell.

“Yeah,” she snapped her fingers and gasped slightly. “Maybe sort of like those talismans you mentioned your friend used!”

“Oh?” He said, he wasn’t sure how accurate that comparison was, but he trusted her that it made sense.

“Can I see?” Nini asked curiously.

“Sure!” Edda started digging trough her bag. “Oh, for the love of, I just put them in here.” She mumbled under her breath as her digging intensified.

As she dug she lifted a few things up from the bag, maybe in hopes of getting a better view of the inside of it. As she did so Nini suddenly gasped.

“Is that Red Water Lilly?!!!” She scooted up to stare in awe at the, strangely still somewhat fresh looking, flower.

“Huh? Oh yeah it is.” Edda grinned. “Cool right?”

“Cool?” Arthur asked, it was no doubt a pretty looking flower, but cool wasn’t exactly the word he would use to describe it. Plus there was something, off, about it. Maybe because of how it had just appeared on his sword when he had swung at that water creature.

“Yeah! Cool!” Edda turned to Arthur, “You know the story behind this flower? They say that Näcken once was in love with a young woman, but she refused to be with him, so he took a knife and killed her. And it was her blood that turned Lilies like this one red.” She held the flower up to the sky, studying it.

The story did nothing but turn Arthur’s stomach, if he couldn’t hate that water creature more, and for such a dark and horrible story to be behind such a beautiful flower...

“Yeah! And they’re super hard to get too! Because that meanie head keeps hogging them all to himself!” Nini said with a huff.

“They sure are,” Snurra said, “I once tried to get some for my fiancée, nearly had to fight to the death with him in order to get one.” She snickered a bit. “You could say it was worth it though, not only for the look on her face when I gave it to her, but also considering she then could use it as a bartering tool for when one of her friends almost drowned.”

Oh? Fighting for a flower that your loved one wishes to have? Arthur could definitely respect that.

“I remember that!” Nini said excitedly, and then turned back to Edda. “So how did _you_ get it!?”

“I think Arthur could explain it better than me,” Edda said my her lips stretched out into a crooked smile as she returned the flower into the bag, seemingly to continue digging trough it. “Considering my eyes were closed as it all happened.

Arthur happily explained how it happened to an enraptured Nini, who seemed very excited about him trying to swipe at the creature with his sword.

“So cool!” She said, shaking her first in front of her.

He couldn’t help feeling his chest swell with pride, just a little bit, at the sight. Remembering the praise he had gotten from Edda about it before.

Then the conversation moved on as Edda finally found the sticks she had been digging after, leading to her explaining how they worked. Nini happily butting in with ideas for how she could continue with her work on them.

“Why not carve the spell into the non metal part of your dagger? It is wood?”

Edda cocked her head to the side in though, a small smile forming on her face.

“It _is_ wood...”

“Alright, we have arrived to our destination!” Snurra announced before anything more on the topic could be said, and she was right. In front of them was the opening to a bustling town, with a sign in front of it reading “Bergeleva”.

“Oh! Well I guess it’s here we part ways.” Edda said, bagging her things and starting to move to the edge of the cart to climb down. “Thank you for the ride!”

“Yes! Thank you miss Snurra!” Arthur said before he started rushing to get off the cart before Edda, not wanting to miss his chance to help her down.

“The pleasure has been all mine,” Snurra said with a laugh. “Hey Nini wasn’t there something you wanted to do?”

Arthur offered his arms up to Edda as she moved to climb down.

“You don’t have to do that,” she smiled over her shoulder at him as she heaved her body over the edge. “I don’t wanna dirty your hands with my shoes.” He felt a little disappointed as she dropped down beside him, but that disappointment swiftly disappeared as she smiled down at him and brushed his hair with her hand.

“Thanks for the offer though.”

Arthur sighed and moved to kiss her hand once more, but was interrupted by Nini running up to the two of them.

“I got you something! As thanks!” She said.

Edda raised and eyebrow.

“As thanks for what?”

“For hanging out with me. And making it less boring! Snurra is sooooooo boring all the time, but you two being there made it much more fun!” She grinned at them, then she deflated a bit. “Also, I was kinda mean to you Mister, so...” She held her hand out towards him, one of her glass pearls resting on it, it was blue and was on a thin strip of leather, making it sort of like a necklace. “Thank you... and sorry.”

Arthur hesitated for a second, looking to Edda for what he should do, she simply gestured for him to take it. So he did.

“Thank you, Little Miss Nini.” He said, bowing, just in case.

“I wanna help you with the curse, but I can only do one spell good yet.” She said sheepishly.

“Ah, that’s fine,” he smiled at the child, “I’m sure Miss Edda will have it fixed soon enough.” Be it through her knowledge of magic or... another way.

“Yeah! That’s why I got this!” She stuck her hand in her pocket and pulled out a fistful of hair, which she then presented to Edda. “I got this from my brush! You can make magic with troll hair right!”

Wait, why was she keeping old hair from her hairbrush in her pocket?

Arthur glanced up to Edda, only to see a look of awe and wonder spread across her face.

“I- I can.” She said, slowly lifting her hand up. “Is- can I really take this? Is that ok?”

“Sure!” Nini said with a grin holding up the hair-bunch to Eddas shaking hand. “Snurra said it was fine if I gave this away!”

Edda and Arthur looked up to Snurra, who just gave them a thumbs up.

Edda accepted the troll hair with a broad excited grin on her face, the look of wonder never leaving her eyes. Arthur once again found himself transfixed.

“Thank you Nini!”

If this was how she reacted to some old troll hair, then he wondered how she would react if he got her something off a dragon, considering how rare they apparently were around here...

Yeah, he was definitely going to get her something off a dragon when he returned to his princely form.

Maybe some teeth. She seemed like someone who would like some teeth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeey! Sorry for the long wait, you know school happened and all that.  
> Either way I still hope you guys liked this chapter, it was way longer than I intended, but they are finally in Bergeleva, so that’s at least something!  
> I said in the last chapters notes that I was going to talk about the trolls a bit in this chapters notes, so here we go.  
> Snurra is based upon a short story about a human guy accidentally getting engaged to a troll lady (by jokingly calling her ‘fiancée’), it was a story that I read when I was really young and it has always been stuck in my mind since then. Mostly because the troll in that story, like Snurra, was really really strong and nice. Honestly way to nice imo, since the guy she ended up marrying was such an ass. Snurra’s all good though, she got a really nice and loving fiancée at home.  
> Nini is a bit different from Snurra since she’s not (at least not directly) based on any folklore, but on a character my mom made up for bedtime stories, which was a character that happened to be a child troll who liked to get into adventures.  
> Also, that story about the Red Water Lily is the same one I mentioned back in the notes of chapter 11.  
> I think that’s it for any trivia, at least any I can think of on the top of my head.   
> Thank you for reading this chapter! And I hope you have a nice day! :]


	14. In which Arthur daydreams and thinks

Edda was pretty much bouncing in place as they waved goodbye to Snurra and Nini, a big grin on her face as she put the hair ball inside her bag. It was her hand taking a hold of Arthurs, as they started making their way into Bergeleva, that finally snapped him out off just tantalisingly looking at her, he couldn’t help it, she looked so lovely when she was excited.

They stepped inside Bergeleva, the town looked to be fairly bigger than Hävelösa had been, as well as way more busy than Hävelösa. The sides of the street that they had walked into was covered with vendors selling their wares and people happily buying them.

Edda seemed to take a pause, her gaze traveling over the surroundings, moving off the street as she did, getting out of the way of a few other people making their way into the town. Arthur naturally followed with her.

“What sort of town like this doesn’t have a map by it’s entrance...” she muttered to herself.

“Maybe we could ask someone about it?” Arthur offered helpfully.

“Hm? Yeah, we should probably do that...” she said, throwing one more look around them through squinted eyes before turning to look at him properly. Her eyes widened a bit. “Oh, you haven’t put that on yet?”

Put what on? He followed her gaze to his other hand in which he was grasping the leather strip with the glass pearl on it. Oh, that.

“Don’t tell me that’s bad for your image too?” She snickered, putting her hands on her hips.

“What? No?” He looked at the glass pearl necklace in his hand again, the blue glass of the pearl glittered in the sun. Okay, maybe he was a little bit apprehensive about wearing it, it didn’t exactly fit the, well, image, he was trying to put out.

He looked up at Edda who was only raising her eyebrow at him.

Turning back to the pearl, he rolled it between his fingers in thought. Then again, he’d had his hair full of flowers just a day earlier, so what was a little pearl to that? He shook his head with a small chuckle, glancing up at Edda again.

“Nah, my image can probably handle this too.” He lifted up the leather strip by it’s ends, moved it around his neck and attempted to tie the strip behind his head.

“Do you want me to help?” Edda said after he struggled for a few seconds. “I know a pretty good way to tie necklaces like that one.”

“Just let me-” Arthur muttered, his fingers fumbling with the strip. “I just gotta-“ one of the edges of the strip slipped out of his grasp and he was only just able to catch it before the pearl slipped off. “...Okay I might need some help.” he said sheepishly.

Edda, who he had heard let out a small gasp as the strip had slid out of his grip, gave him a soft and crooked smile.

“If you say so Arty.”

_Arty_ , Arthur thought to himself, turning his back to her and pushing down his collar so she could get access to his neck. Her fingers touching his as she took the strip out of his hands.

“...I’m sorry, was that too weird? I should probably not just call you something like that out of the blue.” She said, her gentle hands working around the back of his neck, he had to physically contain himself to not visibly shiver. What was that she said?

“No!” He exclaimed as he finally registered her words. “...I liked it.” He glanced over his shoulders to see her cheeks stained a pretty pink colour, instinctively he found himself turning back forward as her eyes almost met his.

“Oh...” there was a small, barely audible, nervous laugh. “I guess I’ll keep using it then...” the back of her fingers grazed his neck just below the hairline.

He closed his eyes a bit to enjoy the feeling of her hands behind his neck and the nickname. Arty... it echoed in his head. Arty...

_“Arty! Put me down!” Edda giggled as he swept her off her feet and held her against his chest. Her face beaming at him through her giggles, and slight cackles, and her arms, despite her playful protests, clung around his neck._

He sighed happily.

“Hey, are you falling asleep on me?” Eddas hands moved away from his neck and his collar flipped back up. There was humour in her voice as her hand waved in front of him. “Your necklace is done Mr daydreamer.”

He turned to look at her, trying not to look too disappointed over that she didn’t call him Arty again. Apparently he didn’t do it that well as her face twisted into a look of concern.

“Is something wrong Arthur?” She moved her hands to touch the leather strip again. “Did i make it too tight? I can adjust it if you want?”

His skin tingled as she reached around his neck to adjust the necklace, her hands once again brushing against his neck. Not to mention how close she now was with her crouching in-front of him now, her grey shining eyes narrowed in concentration and her, oh so sweet looking lips so close to him, much like they had been back by the river. If she moved in, just a bit closer then they could-

“Is that better?” Her voice snapped him back to reality, her hands slowly sliding away from the back of his neck.

“Oh. Yeah.” He said, still shaking himself from his daze.

“That’s good,” she smiled, “You can adjust it yourself anytime you feel like it. Tug at the string to make it looser, and just pull at the knots back here,” her fingers pressed at what felt like two different knots on the strip against his neck “If you feel the need to tighten it.”

“I would prefer if you where the one to adjust it.” He muttered out, only half conscious of what he was saying.

“It would be much less of a fuss if you just did it yourself though?” She said in a confused tone of voice, her eyebrows furrowed.

“Ha, right.” He mentally beat himself up for pulling out such a bad line, he could do better than that! ‘I doubt it would be as wonderful to adjust it myself than to you doing it’? No, too wordy. ‘Your touch is simply to sweet for me to miss out on’? Maybe?

“Either way,” Edda shrugged, her hands retracting from his neck, one of them trailing to his collarbone where the glass pearl rested just below. “This looks really good on you.”

“Really?” Arthur suddenly felt way more attached to the necklace.

“Yeah,” she shot him a small grin and gave the pearl a small flick. “It matches your eyes.”

Arthur felt his heart pound in his chest, watching a sweet pink colour spread across her face as her eyes widened. He was about to grasp her hand to kiss it, but she hurriedly moved away from him and cleared her throat.

“Aaaanyway, let’s see if we can find a map... Or anyone that knows about a map.” She tapped her fingertips against each other, her face a deep red colour.

Arthur, although a bit disappointed to miss a chance to kiss her hand, but not wanting to be pushy, rolled with the change of topic.

“Alright,” he walked to stand beside her as she turned to face the town again. He held his hand out to her, “Let’s go then, Miss Edda?”

Her face was still red as she looked from his face and his hand. For one second he was worried that he might have been to forward, but then a soft smile crossed her face as she put her hand in his.

“Yeah, let’s go, Arty.”

His entire body filled with a fizzy feeling as they stepped back onto the street. He felt so fizzy that he almost forgot that his dwarf height wasn’t the most optimal when leading someone trough the streets filled with people. Edda eventually took the lead instead, not that he really complained about that. Just feeling her hand in his made him happy enough.

They walked around a bit, asking some of the vendors if they had any idea of the placement of the library or any map. One older lady selling mittens and hats made of sheep hide and/or wool pointed them to the town’s centre where a map apparently should be on a billboard.

“Everyone keeps telling the mayor that we need more maps for the people that visit around this time, but nothing ever happens,” she muttered to them. “He says that it’s not important since it will only be useful around this time of year, but I’ve sure have seen an influx of visitors in the last few years even outside of the festival season.”

Both Edda and Arthur stood there quietly listening as the woman complained at them, Arthur nodding politely as he shared a look with Edda, who’s smile was starting to look just a bit strained.

“-but does he ever listen? Noooooo. He said he did the maths and the money was better spent on getting that new winery set up, for ‘tourist reasons’. But how are they supposed to find the new winery without a gosh darn map!” She leaned back in her chair with a huff. “I swear, I’ve never seen a man with such skewered priorities.”

“Oh! Well, thanks for the help!” Edda said, pouncing on the lull in the conversation. “But we should go, we have important things to do.” She gestured towards where the old woman had pointed them before.

“Yes, Thank you ma’am.” Arthur added, bowing almost instinctually.

“Ohh, aren’t you two such dearies,” the old woman cooed, Arthur looked up, just in time to see that Edda had followed his lead and curtsied towards the old woman. “It’s always a pleasure to meet such polite young people. Don’t let me keep you, go have fun you two, the couple dances should be in a few hours, so you still have time to run around a bit before then, do not worry.”

Couple dances? Oh right, she had mentioned there being a festival here, so couple dances happening in the festival did make sense. Though to dance with Edda? He felt his lips involuntary tug into a smile. It would be nice to dance with her...

“Couple- We’re not-“ Edda stuttered, her cheeks once again flushed pretty pink. “T-thank you for your help!” She repeated, before turning and hurriedly walking towards the direction off the town centre, Arthur in tow.

“You’re welcome deary! If he steps on your toes just pretend you don't notice!” The old woman shouted after them.

Arthur chuckled at the old woman’s words, as if he would step on Eddas feet, he liked to think he was a pretty good dance partner. He looked around the street as they walked. They where right in the middle of a crowd of people, but as he looked up above them he could see large rings made of flowers and leaves adorn the sides of the buildings, along with a few arches hanging in between buildings, also decorated generously with flowers and leaves. It really did look like it was decorated for some festival of sorts. He wondered what sort of festival it could be, considering he didn’t know of any that happened around this time of year, around the middle of the summer.

“Hey, Miss Edda? You know what this festival is about?” He looked up at her expectantly, but she didn’t say anything, almost like she hadn’t heard him.

He noticed that she had started grabbing the side of her head, and flinching as she accidentally bumped into people as she walked. He immediately forgot his question as worry and protectiveness started welling up inside him, making him hurry up his steps so he was walking beside her again.

“Are you okay Edda?” He asked, but she didn’t look like she even had heard him, her eyes scouring the surroundings.

He clenched her hand a bit, this time silently asking her if she was alright. She just nodded, not looking down at him, her head still in her hand.

If he had been his old princely self he would have taken her under his arm and held her against his chest as they made their way trough the crowd, but unfortunately, he wasn’t that at the moment.

Could he even dance with her in his cursed form?

He felt frustration swell up in his chest, but he tried to focus on the issue at hand, figuring out what he could do to help her. The best he could think of doing was holding her arm closer to him and trying to pet it soothingly, which he did. Though while she seemed to visibly relax a little bit more, her shoulders would still jerk up at the loud noises of people shouting in the crowd and her face still looked tense.

Looking ahead Arthur spotted, between the crowds of people, what looked like the billboard that the old woman had been talking about. He gently tugged Eddas arm and took the lead, doing his best to clear the way in front of them so no one would bump into her.

It thankfully seemed like the crowd cleared up as they reached the town centre, Arthur assumed that it was because the lack of any stalls that had littered the crowded streets, as there was only the billboard the old woman had been talking about, a few people currently working with setting up what looked to be a large tent, and a large statue that stood in the very middle of the town’s centre.

Arthur continued making his way to the billboard, Edda beside him, looking now noticeably more relaxed, her hand no longer in her head, but her face still somewhat tensed up. As they walked he couldn’t help to throw another look at the statue. It looked to be an older woman with a sword strapped to her side, in one hand she held what looked to be a wine bottle, in the other she held a large spear.

He tore his eyes away from the strange statue and turned to look at the billboard, searching for the map. He didn’t have to look for too long as Edda found it soon enough, and started mumbling to herself as she hovered her index finger in front of it.

“Have you found it?” He asked, prompting her to look down at him, this time hearing what he was saying.

“Not yet,” she turned back to the map, “it should be here though, it’s not like the library at home would give me the name of a library that didn’t exist right?” She let out a small laugh, but then furrowed her brows as she squinted at the map. “Right?”

“You two need any help?” A voice piped up behind them.

Arthur spun around, accidentally letting go of Eddas hand in the process, to see one of the workers that had been setting up the tent, they cocked their head at the two of them with a friendly smile.

“Oh, well,” Edda begun. “I heard there was a library here? In this town? And I can’t find it on the map?”

“Oh that! Yeah, it’s not marked on the map, but it’s in the community house.” The worker let out a small laugh. “We really need to do something about that map.” They muttered to themselves.

“In the community house...” Edda said, and as Arthur looked over at her she had already turned around to the map again.

“Yeah, it’s right there.” The worker pointed at a specific point on the map which said ‘Community house’ with fancy lettering.

“Looks to be close by.” Arthur commented.

“Yup,” the worker retracted their hand and gestured to their right. “It’s the third house down Gyllene street, can’t miss it.”

Arthur followed their gesture to yet another street with a fair share of people. Third house, he repeated in his head, memorising the small direction, already planning on leading her through this crowd as well. He could _probably_ tell when they had reached the third house even with his height disadvantage and the crowd of human sized humans. No what was he saying, of course he could!

“Ah, Great,” Edda said, Arthur looked up just in time to catch a shining grin from her, taking him out of his thoughts for a second. “Thanks for the help.”

Wh- Oh right, he had almost forgot about the worker standing right in front of them.

“No problem, I know this town is pretty confusing to navigate for new people.” The worker grinned back, before returning to the tent where the other’s looked to be waiting impatiently for them.

“Alright!” Edda said, turning to Arthur, smiling brightly and taking a hold of his hand. “Let’s finally get to that library huh?”

“Yes,” Arthur said, before taking a small bow to her and shooting her a smile. “Allow me to escort you there, M’lady.”

Edda snorted.

“What? Think I forgot the directions so quickly?” She said tilting her head to her side with a small grin.

“What- of course not! I-“ Arthur sputtered, “I just thought- A lot of people where bumping into you before, and I can’t let that happen to a lovely you lady such as yourself.” Yes, he saved it!

“Okay then, Mr protector, go ahead.” Edda shot him an amused grin, but he could also just make out the tint of pink on her cheeks returning.

“As you wish, M’lady.” He turned in time to hear a small cackling laugh from her, her hand squeezing his warmly.

And so he led her through the crowd again, his eyes both searching above and through the crowd to find the community centre, though with the directions from the worker it wasn’t especially hard to miss. Even more so hard to miss with the door to it standing wide open with people pouring into it.

The inside of the community centre was, almost as full of life as it was outside, and even with a few vendors selling stuff inside the building as well. Arthur didn’t get to much time to take in the interior as Edda quickly made a beeline towards the, surprisingly well signposted all things considered, door to the library.

As the library’s thick doors closed behind them he could hear Edda let out a sigh of relief.

“Silence. Sweet sweet silence.”

Arthur watched as she took a deep breath and exhale, a brief look of serenity crossing her face. He realised how tense she had been out there, her shoulders stiff and her movement becoming more and more stressed.

“Miss Edda? Does crowds bother you?” The question slipped out of his mouth before he could even really think or stop himself.

She turned to him and blinked a few times.

“Well, yeah, I thought I made that painfully obvious.” She said, looking away from him. “Most of the time it’s the noise that’s the problem, which is only amplified by how small those streets out there are, the noise just bounces against the walls.” He could see her grimace a bit, turning her head slightly to look at him. “Makes It impossible to think clearly, or really hear anything.”

“It was the noise that bothered you?” He asked, feeling just a bit stupid over not realising it before, the way she had held her head in her hand should have made it clear.

“I mean, I also really don’t like getting my personal space invaded, so that also made it, notably worse.” She let out a stiff laugh.

“Personal space?” The times that Arthur had gotten close to Edda flashed in his head and he panically looked down at her hand which he was still holding. Oh no, had he completely flubbed it from the start?

Edda seemed to notice his growing panic, and let out a small cackle.

“Don’t worry Arty, you’re fine! If you were making me uncomfortable I would have said so.” She grinned at him and squeezed his hand. “Anyway, that’s enough of me and my stupid complaining, we have work to do.”

Arthur wanted to interject that what she said wasn’t stupid, but he didn’t get the chance as Edda started walking into the library more and approached the help desk, immediately starting to ask about the placements of the books she was looking for.

As she did so Arthur begun looking around the room more, it looked like your typical library (or at least what he thought a typical library looked like, it wasn’t exactly the sort of place he tended to spend his time in before this whole thing), albeit a little smaller, a side effect of it not having it’s own building he assumed. It sort of reminded him of the castle library back home in Camelot, the one he’d had to drag Merlin out off on multiple occasions. Though this library looked way more worn down than the one in Camelot.

It was also pretty empty, only a few people walking around the old bookshelves. But speaking of Merlin, he wondered what his friends were up to. Was Snow and Merlins honeymoon going well? Were they still on their honeymoon? Had the other guys managed to break their curses yet? He hadn’t been gone for too long, but part of him was concerned with the well-being of his friends. Then again, it wasn’t like they couldn’t protect themselves, they were part of the Fearless seven after all. Also, he had learned the hard way that Snow could pack one hell of a punch.

“Thank you for the help.” Edda said to the librarian as they departed from the help desk, seemingly having gotten to know what she needed to know about the book placements. She wore a look of excitement as she let go of his hand to rush up to one of the bookcases, where she started happily pulling out a few books.

A small chuckle exited Arthur as he looked at her, leaning himself against the bookshelf, once more human, it was something admirable in someone being so passionate about their work, or at least he thought so. Not to mention that her excitement was sort of, cute? Arthur wasn’t sure if that was the word he wanted to use. No, cute didn’t exactly do her justice.

Edda raised her gaze to the top shelf, her eyes widening along with the grin on her face and she started reaching out to the books on the shelf. Arthur, seeing a chance to impress, removed himself from the shelf and started moving towards her. Edda was standing on her toes but still not reaching whatever book she was trying to grab. Her face had morphed into a look of frustration, and she started raising her foot as if she was planning to climb the bookshelf. Arthur rushed up to her before she could do that.

“Whoa whoa! Hold on. I can get it for you Miss Edda.” He said, putting his hand on her arm gingerly, though it slipped out of his grip the moment she looked over at him and he shrunk back to being a dwarf.

“What? Oh, well I guess I could lift you up and you could then grab it. That would probably work.” She said, throwing a glance back at the bookshelf.

“Wait, no,” He said stepping behind her in hopes of evading her line of sight when she turned to look back at him. While he undoubtedly enjoyed being picked up and held by her, oh how he enjoyed being held, this was a thing he wanted to do without that being involved. “Which bookdo you want? I’ll pull it out for you.”

“Oh! Uh, it’s that one.” She said, seemingly catching on to what he was talking about, and pointed to a large book on the top shelf. “I can just go and see if they have a step stool or anything, you don’t have to do this if you don’t feel like it.” She pulled her arm back.

“But I _want_ to aid you M’lady.” He said softy to her as he leaned forward to reach for the book she had pointed at. “Please don’t look.” He whispered to her as he grabbed the book out of the bookshelf.

“I’m not.” She replied, her voice sounding odd. Arthur glanced down at her face, red on her cheeks and her eyes closed tightly. Oh, he realised how close he was standing to her, his chest practically pressed up against her back and neck.

He hurriedly took a step back.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t making you uncomfortable now was I Miss Edda?” He said, what she had told him earlier about personal space still ringing clear in his head.

“No!” She spun around, “that wasn’t-“ the pile of books she was holding started sliding out of her grasp from her sudden movement, making her stumble forward. “Shit!” She hissed through her teeth as two books escaped her arms.

Arthur jumped forward to catch the two books. One falling on top of the book he was already holding with a loud smack and the other one slamming against his face, making him yelp, before plopping down in the other book. Oh, that did not feel good.

“Crap! Sorry! Are you- that’s blood, you’re bleeding.” Edda whispered to him, as he held his nose and groaned. He looked up at her, meeting her worried eyes and tried to give her one of his most charming grins.

“Don’t worry M’lady, Arthur here has dealt with much worse things than a book.” He started, but stopped as Edda put the book pile on the floor and leaned in to touch his face.

“It has already started to swell,” she muttered in a worried tone. She reached into her bag and pulled out a piece of cloth to swab at the blood that was running out of his nose. For one second Arthur forgot about the pain in his nose entirely, to busy getting lost in her sweet touch and caring eyes. That was until the cloth came in contact with his noise, prompting him to yelp again.

“Sorry!” Edda grimaced, taking one of her hands away from his face to rummage in her bag. “Let me just get some-“

“Is everything alright over here?”

It had been a librarian that had gone over to check what the ruckus they where making was about. After noticing Arthur’s injury she had offered to bring some cotton from the first aid box they apparently had in the back, which Edda had accepted.

Before the librarian had left for the cotton however, she had helped them move to a table, carrying some of Eddas books for her, or at least some of the ones that Arthur wasn’t already carrying. A little bleeding nose wasn’t enough to stop him from helping out, if anything he wanted to be the one carrying _all_ the books, but that didn’t happen so he had to be happy with carrying the three books under one of his arms as he held the rag Edda had given him under his nose with the other. Next time he got the chance though, he was going to carry all of the books and make Edda really impressed, that he swore to himself.

It had been sitting by one of the libraries tables, with the pieces of cotton in his nose, as Edda pulled out the potion she had worked on on Snurra’s cart. She asked him to drink a little of it for the pain and then she starting to do something similar to what she had done by the river yesterday. Except with more of her touching his nose to make sure it didn’t heal weird.

“That’s the thing with bones,” she muttered, swabbing his nose carefully with the potion. “Gotta hold them in place if you want this healing method to work correctly.”

Arthur didn’t say anything in return, having gone back to simply enjoying being fussed over, eagerly awaiting the part of the healing that would involve her blowing on his nose. He had been healed by plenty other people before, many of them being quite lovely, handsome and receptive to his advances, but there was something different about being healed by Edda. He couldn’t quite put a finger on what it was, but whatever it was it made him feel happy and tingly all over, like she was someone he wanted to turn to after a hard fight in order to get pampered, and gently scolded over pushing himself to hard.

“...Thank you for helping me get that book down, by the way,” Edda said, softly exhaling with a small nervous smile, pulling away the rag she was swabbing his nose with. “I probably should have thanked you for that before, but well-“ she gestured vaguely with her hands “but, it was, really sweet of you, to do that.”

She adverted her eyes away from his as she spoke. Arthur couldn’t help but smile at her mildly flustered appearance, reaching up one of his hands to gently touch her face.

“It was a pleasure to help you Edda.” Even if getting a book slammed into his face hurt like hell, her gently healing him and shyly thanking him had made it all worth it.

Edda snorted at him.

“That book to your face did not look like a pleasure.” She took a small swing of the potion. “Again, sorry about that.”

He just waved her concerns away with a laugh and so the healing process continued over to what was quickly becoming his favorite part.

After the healing was over they quickly moved over to the reason they had gone to the library in the first place, finding the thing that would break his curse, that wasn’t a kiss.

Arthur flipped trough the book he had been handed, jotting down which pages seemed to have anything useful on a slip of paper. He wasn’t super used to do this sort of thing yet, sure he had been made to take a fare share of lessons back home that included flipping through books and writing, but the ones that had always stuck into his memory the most had been the ones about fighting and protecting people.

It wasn’t like anything learnt in those lesson was useful for the task at hand though, so there he was, flipping pages, occasionally glancing up at Edda. Her eyes were laser focused on the pages in front of her as she looked from the book to her notebook, flipped a few pages in her notebook, and then turning to look back at the book. She furrowed her brows and tapped her pen against her lips.

Arthur tore his eyes away from Edda and turned the page of the book in front of him, at first noting looked to be of interest to him, until his eyes saw the words ‘tracking sigil’. He felt his stomach turn as he read the spells description.

“A sigil that once placed upon a person or object will, with the help of an enchanted map (se page 57), let one keep track of wherever a person is at all times. In order to do this you will have...” Arthur stopped reading, the thought of someone using such magic to track a person made him feel such instant repulsion that he almost threw the book to the floor.

“What would lead someone to using such a nasty spell?” He grumbles to himself out loud.

“Huh?” Edda looked up from her book. “Did you find anything useful?”

“Nah,” He gestured towards the book, “just another spell to question the use of.”

Edda raised her eyebrows and leaned over to look at the page herself.

“I mean, it could be useful for objects that you would want to keep track on,” she scratched her neck, “but yeah, it mentioning people is definitely a bit sketchy.”

“Yeah,” Arthur said through a grimace as Edda moved back to her work. “Have you found anything useful yet?”

“Sorta!” Eddas head snapped up again, a big grin on her face. “I thought I should look up the usage of troll hair and look what I just found!”

She turned the book to him and pointed at a paragraph in it.

“...one possible antidote that might be used for such transformation spells is a salve made out of, among other things, wood cranesbill and hair from a troll.” She read out loud, her voice barely filtering her excitement. “It doesn’t seem like the writer is super sure about it’s usefulness, and it doesn’t explain the full recipe, or how to make it... but it’s a lead!”

She leaned back a bit in her chair.

“Or at least another possible cure to put on the list.” She shrugged. “We should probably prep stuff for this thing anyway, wood cranesbill only bloom around this time of the year, so it would be a shame if this was one that worked and we have to wait a year or so to get the chance to make it again.”

“Wait, there’s a list?” He asked, not sure if she had ever mentioned one to him before.

“Yeah, but it’s pretty short, and is meant to be used if I can’t find a weak point to exploit in the spell, which, so far, I have not. Or at least not something immediately useful or conclusive.” She flipped the pages in her notebook to show him a page with ‘John’s wort???’, ‘Rune spell amulet’, and ‘Loophole in conditions?’ written on it. The last point having a few small scribbles under it saying ‘fake kiss? Trick it?’.

“Well, whatever’s the case,” Arthur said, eyeing her endless notes as she wrote down ‘troll hair salve’ on the page and flipped back to her current page of the note book. She was really working hard on this. “I know you’ll figure something out, especially if you now have four plans ready to go.”

She gave him a gentle smile which made his heart warm at the sight.

“Thank you Arthur.” She turned back to her work. “Well, I better see if I can find the recipe for this salve now, and then I’ll return to look for weaknesses.”

“Alright!” Arthur threw one final look at Edda as she resumed her note taking and reading before returning to his own book and turning to the next page. The warm feeling he had gotten from her smile still warming his chest pleasantly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo!  
> So a whole chapter in Arhurs pov? That’s a first. It mostly happened due to poor planning and self control on my part (my brain just, keept giving me ideas for scenes, and suddenly Arthur’s section was starting to become pretty long).  
> I feel like I want to keep any fun trivia about the inspiration for this chapter for the next chapter, but while I’m here...  
> Shoutout to my friend Tater for proofreading and helping me with some parts of this chapter, specifically what the old woman shouted at them as they where walking away and Arthur’s whole daydream about holding Edda, was all them. They’ve helped proofread allmost all of my chapters so far and they’re a great help/enabler.  
> Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter! I hope you have a nice day!


	15. In which evening falls upon Bergeleva

“Sorry Miss, it looks like we don’t have that book here.” The librarian behind the reception desk said with an apologetic look.

Edda had to restrain herself from letting out a groan of frustration, after digging trough the books for any possible reference to the salve she had finally managed to find one that referenced to a book which was described as having the full recipe, and now it turns out it wasn’t even in the library. A feeling a déjà vu filled her as she lifted her head to ask for the possible locations of the book, but it seemed like this librarian was one step ahead of her.

“But it does seem like the town next over have a copy, I could ask them to send-“

“Is it in Endeslättaren?” She said, quickly realising how rude it sounded. “Sorry, it’s just- We can’t stay for long and we’re already going there anyway.” It looked like it so far at least, she had taken a small break after finding out about the book in which the salves recipe was in. Mostly because Arthur insisted she needed to take one. And the moment she had returned to work she had found the salve had completely slipped from her mind, leading her to look for weaknesses again, and turning out completely empty handed.

“Oh, don’t worry Miss, if you are headed that way it would be inconvenient for you to go next town over anyway,” the librarian smiled politely, “considering they are located on opposite direction from here.” She then added as she dragged her finger along the page of the tome in front of her.

“Heh, yeah.” Edda answered, she wasn’t exactly sure about what town she was referring to, since she didn’t have a map in front of her, but she figured that it was best just to go along.

“Ah! It looks like the book is in Endeslättaren.” The librarian looked up from the tome with a bright smile. “Do you want me to send them a message to them to reserve the book for you?”

“No that’s fine,” The idea of people expecting her made Edda sort of, uncomfortable. “Thank you for the help though.”

“Of course Miss, is there anything else I can help you with?” The librarian said politely.

“Nah, that’s all I needed to ask,” Edda said, already trying to subtly move away from the reception desk.

“Okay Miss, have a nice day!” The librarian said, finally ending the conversation, letting Edda return to the table where Arthur was waiting.

He had stopped looking through the books with her a while ago, as they had finished going through all the books she had collected. It looked as if he had taken the time to pile the books in one single stack during the time she had been gone, and now he was... Laying on his back holding the stack of books in his hands, lifting them up and down??? He seemed to be muttering something under his breath as he laid on the floor, apparently not yet realising that she was there, as he had yet to acknowledge her presence.

Edda simply stood in place for a few seconds, not being sure what to make of the sight before her, but it wasn’t like he hadn’t done strength training in front of her before. Even if the library struck her as an, odd, place to do it. Then again, this was probably just him passing the time as she was away. Whatever the case was, he hadn’t made a deal out of it before, so who was she to do so now.

That being said, him using the books like that was just a little bit funny.

“That doesn’t look like the pose you would wanna be in, considering what a single one of those books did to you before.” she said with a small snort, as she walked up to the table where her notebook remained untouched.

“Oh! You’re back Miss Edda!” He said excitedly, before the tone of his voice lowered. “Don’t you worry about that M’lady, I’m not about to let these things get the upper hand of me...Again.” The boisterous tone of his voice tapered off just a bit at the end.

Edda closed her notebook, snickering at his words as she did, and returned it into her bag. She turned her head to him, just about to make a snarky remark about him picking fights with books, only to see him aggressively heave the books over him, the stack shaking dangerously from the movement. The book on top looked as if it was just about to topple over, taking the rest of the stack with it.

“See, Arthur got this hand-“

Edda flung herself down to a crouching position as the first book began to fall, grabbing it just before it had a chance to hit his face. She placed her other hand on top on the pile to steady it.

His warm breath swirled against the back of the hand that had caught the book, his shining eyes wide, and mouth slightly agape, as he looked up at her.

She felt that strange feeling in her chest again, and with a light twitch she pulled the hand grasping the book against her body. The warmth in the back of the hand lingering like a ghost.

Try not to think about it. Try not to think about it. _Try not to think about it._

“So uh,” she laughed nervously, rising up and clumsily picking up a few extra books from the stack to put on the table, along with the book she had caught. “What was that about not letting the books get the upper hand?” She found herself unable to properly look at him as she rubbed the back of her hand. It was just his breath, it shouldn’t stay in her hands that long, so why was it?!

“Ah! Well,” she heard him grunt as he rose from the floor. “Sometimes the visage of a, fair lady, as yourself makes ol Arthur loose his concentration a bit.” He said, letting out a small chuckle. “Those are some lovely reflexes you have there though M’lady.” He then added.

Her mind flashed with moments of her life in which she’d just limply watched things fall apart, fall over, or fall down without her body registering or reacting at all.

“Thanks, you might not want to count on it though.” She said finally looking over at him as his face scrunched up into a look of confusion.

“What do you mean?” He tilted his head, making one of his cheeks press against the pile of books he was carrying in one of his arms.

“Don’t worry about it,” she shook her head, trying to make the warmth in her chest that had bloomed up again leave. “We’re about finished in here, by the way.”

Her attempt at changing the topic was successful as she explained what she had found out so far, regarding weaknesses (or lack thereof) and the book with the salve recipe. He nodded thoughtfully along with her explanations, once again starting to pile up the books in his hands, this time insisting to carry them all to where she needed to return them.

“Tempting fate a third time?” She couldn’t help to snicker.

“You know what they say Edda. Third times the charm.” He answered with a somewhat stupid looking grin.

Thankfully no more book related incidents occurred as they went to return the books to the bookshelves, though Edda was a little bit concerned over Arthur begin able to see over the stack he was carrying. A concern he laughed off, moving to hold the entire pile with a single arm to sway her worries.

As she put the books back on the shelf, trying her best to remember from where she picked them, Arthur stood proudly by her side, holding up the books for her, as well as helping put back the books from the lower shelves. However it didn’t take long until she found herself once again struggling with putting back the book that came from the highest shelf.

She immediately stepped out of the way as Arthur offered his help like before, holding out the book for him as she looked away and clenched her eyes shut for good measure. No way she was going to get stuck in the same awkward position as last time. The feeling of his chest against her back still haunted her, as well as the odd urge she had felt that moment. The urge to lean back against him. Why would she even think that? He was just trying to be helpful, why did her brain suddenly have to be weird about it? Why did the idea of doing so make her body feel so unbearably warm? Hell, why did him being so close to her make her heart feel like it was trying to escape her chest?

“Miss Edda? I’ve put the book back now... Are you feeling well? You look as if you have a fever?” A warm hand gently touched her forehead, before quickly disappearing as she snapped her eyes open. She looked down at him as he stood with his hand still raised, concern and confusion welling around in his eyes.

“Oh, yeah I’m fine. I just... thought about something, embarrassing.” it wasn’t, exactly, a lie.

“Ah,” He said, moving his hand to the back of his neck. “Sorry about touching you out of the blue like that then.” He let out a small awkward laugh.

“What? Oh, don’t worry about that you’re fine.”She felt that his touch, strangely enough, had not made her feel especially uncomfortable. A bit surprised maybe, but not uncomfortable. It had, like much of him, been...comforting. “Anyway, that was the last book, so we should probably get moving.” She tried to push the strange thoughts away, they were clearly not doing her any good.

She extended her hand towards Arthur, the silent question hanging in the air.

Arthur smiled and took her hand, warmly squeezing it.

Edda squeezed back.

“You know,” Edda said as they started walking. “We probably need to look through the map again, for how we’re going to make our way to Endeslättaren. Since we kinda did throw out the old route we had planned before.” She laughed slightly. “Maybe I can then also see if there’s any meadows on the way there!”

“Meadows?” Arthur asked.

“Yeah, for the Wood Cranesbill.” Edda said, “They often grow in meadows.”

“Oh, that’s the thing for the salve right?” Arthur pushed open the heavy library door as they talked.

“Yeah, thought it would be nice if it was something we could pick up on the way to Endeslättaren.” She said, following Arthur through the door and letting it close behind her with a loud thud that echoed through the large foray of the community house.

“Sounds like a good plan.” Arthur nodded along with her explanation. “How about we leave the planning til for later now though, you were practically working yourself to the bone in there.”

Edda snorted.

“Come on, we were only in there for, what, four hours? Hardly the longest time I’ve spent in a library before.” She put a hand on the outer door to the community house, and pushed it open, only to get a face full of the chilly evening air.

The sky had darkened significantly and the, now way less populated, streets was lit up by lanterns glowing a warm bright light.

“...Ok, maybe we were in there a little more than four hours.” She mumbled to herself, sparing one small look at Arthur who shot her a look of mild amusement at her bewilderment. She adverted her gaze, a strange churning in her stomach, and instead looked back inside the community house, only now realising that the only people inside was a few in the middle of packing their stalls.

“I guess everyone is closing shop now,” Arthur said, shrugging as Edda turned to look at him again. “Or has already done so.”

There was a weird nagging feeling in the back of Eddas head as Arthur spoke, like she had forgotten something but wasn’t sure what. Well, hopefully it wasn’t anything important.

“I guess we should see if we can find an inn now?” Edda asked out loud as she walked out of the doorframe and onto the street. “Let’s hope it’s visible on the map this time...” Her voice tapered off as her ears caught noise coming from the town centre. Looking over she saw what looked like the roof of a tent, with edges decorated with flowers, strung above large crowd of moving people. They were... dancing?

“Is that the couple dance that the old woman was talking about?” Arthur asked, sounding oddly, excited?

“Maybe?” Edda was honestly not super familiar with the summer festival, or well, she knew about it, but her knowledge had for the longest time been restricted to the summer ball that was set up by the king and queen around this time of year. Edda had never been to fond of balls, so she had never been to fond of the summer festival. Her thoughts on it (and festivals in general) had soften a little bit during her time outside of the castle, but even surrounded by people that wasn’t pompous and arrogant royals, she found that she couldn’t really join in on the festivities. She had never stayed in the town this far in on the evening during a festival. “I wonder of it’s still possible to reach the map?”

She turned to look down at Arthur who was looking at the dancing people with shining eyes, a large grin on his face. There was a small buzzing feeling of warmth in her chest as he turned to look at her.

“Only one way to find out M’lady, allow me.” He laid the hand that wasn’t grasping hers on her arm, grinning at her in a way that she couldn’t help but snicker at, as they walked up to the town centre.

There was a lot of people in the town centre, though most of the people dancing was doing so around the statue of the woman, who’s head now was adorned with a colourful flower crown. The rest of the centre was filled with benches and tables, which where cluttered with jugs, cups and bottles, as well as more people of course.

It was, pretty loud. People shouting and singing along with the music played by a group of musicians that had set themselves up relatively close to the billboard.

Oh, right the billboard.

She pointed it out to Arthur, and they slowly started to weave through the crowd towards it. It was hard to say of this was more or less bearable than how the balls in the castle were, both were ridiculously loud and noisy. Maybe it could be said that there was less gossip and people talking behind others backs here but... A woman sitting on a bench ogled her with a surprised look on her face, quickly turning back to her glass in embarrassment as she realised that Edda was looking back at her. Yeah, not the best, but definitely far from having people laugh behind your back as you struggle to stand in the heels your mother insisted that you had to wear.

_“No more excuses! You’ll have to learn how to wear these sooner or later! And unless you want to make this entire kingdom look like an embarrassment it will have to start now!”_

Edda shook her head, this was not the time for that. She needed to focus on the task at hand, the present. She wasn’t in the castle anymore, and she wasn’t planning on going back there either.

She felt a gentle tug on her arm, making her finally return to reality. Arthur smiled softly at her, and gestured towards the billboard that was now in front of them with a flourish.

“We’re here Miss Edda!” She could just make out him saying, his boisterous voice almost completely engulfed by the music from the band that was now playing right beside them.

“Sure are Arty,” she muttered back at him, looking into his brilliant eyes and taking in his sweet but stupid looking smile. Why was he always both so ridiculous and sweet at the same time?

Wait.

She sharply turned her head to look at the map, this was not the time to ogle another person, why was she even doing so in the first place???

His hands was still, oh so gently, holding her arm, exuding warmth and comfort.

Map, focus on the map!

Edda practically slammed her face into the map in an attempt to bring her focus back to it, it worked somewhat and her eyes started scanning for any mention of an inn. It was thankfully pretty easy to spot, it being pretty clearly marked on the map as being on the opposite street from the community house.

Her attention was brought away from the map by a gentle squeeze of her hand, making her look over and into Arthur’s big eyes full of concern and confusion. Right, he had seen her slam her face into the map... Edda adverted her eyes and simply gave him a thumbs up. Way to be weird in front of someone you...

Someone she what? He was just a client, a friend at best, why did she word it like that?

After staring blankly at the map, asking it a question it couldn’t possibly know the answer to, she huffed. The noise in the town centre was starting to get to her, that was probably why she was starting to get irrational, she needed to get them out of there soon.

She went over the route they would have to take in her head a few times before finally taking a step back from the billboard. Looking down at Arthur again she made a gesture towards where the inn was according to the map, he gave her a sharp nod, signalling that he understood.

But as they were about to leave the town centre Arthur suddenly stopped in his tracks, looking back over at the dancing couples. Edda turned to look at him, she was just able to see the corner of his eyes, but he looked... Sad? No, there was something else in there too.

“Arthur?” She asked, trying to put a finger on what she was seeing.

He turned to her, his eyes wide, but then his face shifted into a sweet smile. Taking a step back, he held up her hand in his, placing his other on his chest and taking a small bow.

“May I have this dance, M’lady?” His voice fluttered trough the, now a little bit more bearable, noise.

Edda felt her heart almost lunge out of her chest, which should have felt extremely painful, but for some reason it wasn’t. It took her a second to fully register what he had said, but as she did a sinking feeling came over her. She hadn’t danced with someone in, well, years, and it wasn’t like she was ever to fond of dancing in the first place. The whole thing always seemed like the noblemen, princes, and dukes way to pridefully mock Harriet. Rarely were any of them ever able to ask her to a dance with a straight face, just barely holding back laughter and/or a look of distain or pity.

...Was he trying to mock her?

No, he wouldn’t, would he? He looked oh so sincere, but then again she had found the ones that looked that way, often was the ones who was worst.

“I-“ Edda mumbled, taking a few steps back. “Why?” Why would he even ask her to a dance? For what reason would he want to dance with her? Hell, the couple dances was still going on, what sounded like a new song just having started, why would he want to dance now? It wasn’t like- No she wasn’t going down that road today, just thinking about it made her brain feel weird and fuzzy. The sheer thought of them being like that was _absurd_.

“Miss Edda?” He said, his face falling into a look of confusion and sadness. “What do you mean why?” He took a pause, his brows furrowing, a small grimace in his face. “I’m sorry.” He finally said. “Did I step over the line again?” His shoulders slumped.

“No I-“ Edda started, trying to form a coherent sentence with her brain still being a mess. He looked so genuine, it made sense, he was a genuine person, but for him to be like that now was just-

_“I don’t think I’ve ever danced with someone with such sloppy footwork, but it was at least fun to see how she smiled through it when I stepped on her feet. She really thought I was just doing it on accident. How dumb can you be.”_

“Edda? Are you alright?” Arthur’s hands squeezed hers warmly. His large shining, genuine, eyes looking at her, full of worry. He took a small, careful, step forward, on of his hands raised as if trying to touch her face. “Are you cry-“

A loud laugh broke out of the noise.

“The poor guy! Desperate enough to ask a magician for a dance!” A guy on one of the benched almost keeled over in laughter. “Like one of those hermits ever would join in on something like this!”

Another man by the table smacked the laughing man on the head. Edda flinched at the sight.

“Have you lost your mind!?” He took the drink away from him. “Get to bed before you really say something you regret!”

Edda quickly lost interest in the scene by the bench as others joined in on dragging the drunk man away, it wasn’t anything worse than what she had heard before, and also she felt a gentle tugon her arm.

Arthur moved closer to her, throwing an harsh look towards the benches before turning his gaze to her again, his eyes immediately softening again, and reaching up his free arm.

She wasn’t sure what compelled her to do so, but Edda found herself hunching down to him, letting his warm hand touch her cheek. She closed her eyes as his thumb tenderly brushed against the faint wetness on her cheeks.

Wait what.

Her eyes snapped open again and she touched had face just bellow her eye.

It was wet.

Shit.

She felt her chest tighten painfully as she realised, she had cried. And not only had she cried, she had done so _in public._

“Miss Magician? I’m so sorry about him, he always get’s out of control when drinking.” The man that had yelled at the drunkard before was now beside her. She didn’t look up at him. “We’ve made sure he’s returned home where he can’t accost any more people.”

They probably believes that she was crying over what the drunken man had said. The thought made her grit her teeth, this was why she wasn’t supposed to cry, she couldn’t look weak, she didn’t want other’s to look at her in pity.

She didn’t want to be anyone’s burden but herself’s.

“Miss Magician?” The man repeated.

“Edda?” Arthur’s hand was still on her cheek, warm and comforting as always.

“It’s fine.” Edda spoke carefully, not wanting her voice to break. “He’s not- I just- remembered something.” She hated not being able to speak properly, having to painfully fight the lump in the back of her throat that wished to make her embarrass herself even more in front of all these people.

Why did she even start crying in the first place? Because she remembered someone being an asshole? That didn’t make any sense, she’d remembered those words plenty times before, but they had never made her cry, at least for four years now.

She felt Arthur gingerly draw circles on the back of her hand with his thumb.

Could it be? That she cried because she remembered it in association with... No, that was absurd. She was hardly _that_ close to him, it was nothing for her to cry over.

...He didn’t deserve to be dragged into her mess.

“Oh, well- Still-“ the man fumbled out “Can I give you something to make up for all of this, that man was my brother and I feel like I should do something in his place?”

“You don’t need to-“ she took a deep breath. “It’s fine.” She moved to stand up, only freezing for a second as Arthur’s hand slipped away from her face. Steady breathing. “We’re just about to leave anyw-” she felt her eyes tear up again as she barely contained her wails. Oh! Why wouldn’t her throat just stop being like this!?

“Edda!” Arthur hurried up to put his free hand in her hip in an attempt to steady her.

“No.” She said trough gritted teeth, pushing away the unnecessary tears from her eyes. “Not here. Stupi-” Her demand feel on deaf ears as her voice yet again began breaking.

“You wish to go somewhere else?” The man asked, “I still got the keys to my store! I think I still have some cookies left from earlier... Follow me!”

Edda was about to protest, but as she lifted her head she saw Arthur’s big concerned eyes looking up at her, and then she saw all the people, still looking at her from the dance floor and the benches. Yeah, maybe going to this guys store would be, considerably, better.

The walk to the store, went well, and she was already feeling herself calm down as the man swung the door open and welcomed them in. Arthur was still close by her side, having softy spoken to her as they had walked, telling her sweet and reassuring things. Though also some brash things, that despite everything, made her stifle laughter.

Her cheeks were still wet as she stepped inside the warm store, but it seemed like her eyes had finally stopped leaking, as well as her throat clearing up somewhat. Her eyes wandered over the shelves that covered the walls, they were fully stocked with what looked to be dried herbs and other similar knickknacks.

It took her a full second to realise that she was in a magic store, not too dissimilar to the one owned by Aspen back home. The weird nagging feeling from before started to return.

“Stay there I’ll go see if I still got those cookies laying around.” The man said as he rushed behind the counter and trough a door behind it. Edda was about to stop him, but he had already disappeared through the door before she could say a word.

“Huh.” she muttered, absentmindedly drying her cheeks on her sleeve.

“Are you feeling better Edda?” Arthur asked, his thumb still caressing the back of her hand.

“Yeah, sorry for making a scene like that,” she said with a slight laugh, feeling somewhat embarrassed over the whole thing. “I like to think I’m usually better at not letting bad memories get to me like that.” She snickered “Maybe spending that long in the library, almost nonstop working messed me up just a little bit.” Yeah, that would make sense, she was starting to feel a little bit tired.

“Oh, well, if you say so.” Arthur spoke a little hesitantly, “I think what that bloke said to you was awful though.”

“Some people are like that unfortunately.” Though it wasn’t something that happened too often, as she found most people, that wasn’t of some Royal and Nobel bloodline, had the common decency not to insult other people to their faces. The idea that magicians were social recluses was a pretty wide, but unspoken, idea after all, so most people didn’t exactly bring any attention to it, unless they were feeling like being rude. Also, it wasn’t like Edda was unused to be called a hermit, princess Harriet was called that all the time, just because she barely joined in on the feasts and celebrations thrown by the royal family. If anything Edda found way easier to ignore other people insults when she didn’t have to care about being a royal figurehead, and the responsibilities that came with being one. 

“...do people often call you that?” Arthur asked carefully, his eyebrows furrowed into a serous look as he looked up at her.

Edda snickered softly and patted Arthur on top of his head, before she started looking around the store at all the things on display.

“I can deal with a few people occasionally being rude, gotta have some thick skin in my business, don’t worry about it Arty.” She gazed over the set of semi-fresh herbs sitting in small bundles on one shelf, there was a small spike in the nagging feeling. “Like I said, it was probably just me being a little tired, along some bad memories resurfacing at a bad time, but nothing to really worry about.”

Her gaze lowered to the long rack of dried herbs, she dragged her fingertips under the small signs reading the herbs names.

“Plus,” she shrugged, glancing over to Arthur again “it did look like that guy got quite the scolding, so it wasn’t like he got away with being rude scot-free.”

Arthur let out a small huffy laugh. It sounded oddly pleasant.

“I guess so,” He took a short pause to curiously eye the herbs she had been looking at. “You don’t deserve to be called such a thing though, I hope you know that M’lady.” He looked up at her with his sparkling and sincere eyes as he held her hand close to his chest.

Edda felt that weird fluttery sensation again, she could feel the edges of her mouth tug upwards.

“...That’s very sweet of you to say.” She said, wrestling with the strange sensation, doing her best to force it back down.

Arthur smiled sweetly at her, before his face morphed into a small determined frown. Neither of the expressions did anything to help her emotion situation.

“That knobhead better get one hell of a hangover tomorrow.” He stated.

Edda couldn’t help but laugh loudly at his words, throwing her head back as she did.

Just as she was about to say something back to him, in between her laughter, the door behind the counter opened again and the man’s head peaked out of it.

“Okay, so it seems like _someone_ ,” He threw a look behind him with a pointed frown. “ has already eaten all of the cookies,” he sounded a bit deflated. “Is just tea okay?”

“Oh, it’s fine you don’t need to give me anything,” Edda waved her hand at him awkwardly, she was starting to feel really guilty about making this guy feel as if he to do something for her. “It wasn’t your brother being an ass that made me cry anyway, so don’t feel as if you have to make it up to me or something.” She should probably had said that before she agreed to go to his shop, how stupid of her.

Lowering her gaze away from the storeowner in shame for a bit her eyes graced over one basket of herbs with a sign under it that immediately made something click together in her head.

“Even so Miss Magician, I don’t agree with what he called you an-“

“CATSFOOT.” Edda declared loudly and pointed at the basket of herbs, as she finally remembered her plan of refilling the herbs that she had been thinking of yesterday.

“...I’m sorry Miss?” The store owner said, obvious confusion in his voice.

“Oh,” Edda said, clearing her throat, “I just, remembered that I had been meaning to restock on some herbs recently.” She shoot a look at the store’s clock that sat behind the counter. “What’s the usual hours when you’re open? I can probably get by here before we leave tomorrow and get the stuff I need.” She shot a look to Arthur to see if he would be up for the idea.

“Sounds like a good idea Miss Edda.” He affirmed with a nod.

“You can just take what you need now Miss.” The storeowner seemed to regain his posture with a small laugh.

“Really?” Edda turned back to the man in surprise.

“Yeah, go ahead,” The man smiled, “whatever you want, free of charge.”

“Uh, no. I’m going to pay you full price, don’t try to stop me.” And so she did, despite the small protest of the storeowner before he relented and just let her pay for a small bag of Catsfoot, as she said she would.

“Well, if you’re sure this is all you want, then I guess I should wish you two a good evening?” The man asked as he took her payment and put it into the cash register.

Edda was about to say agree, but stopped herself as she heard the tell-tale faint humming from her bag.

That was... Odd, the royal family rarely tended to send messages so close in time to each other, what did they want now that was so urgent?

“Actually,” she started, “can I use the bathroom?”

The storeowner simply nodded and pointed to another door in the corner of the store labelled as the restroom. Edda thanked him and hurried towards it, letting go of Arthur’s hand in the process. It took her a second to realise how long they had been holding hands, it felt oddly natural to her, and she wasn’t sure why.

She shook her head, she had other things to think about, it wasn’t the time to ponder about how warm and comforting his hands felt in hers, or how her skin had buzzed as he had touched her cheek before. Nope, none of that. Not now. Not ever. He was just a client. A work partner!

The bottle hummed again, bringing her out of her spiralling mindscape for a second.

She took a deep breath to purge her mind of any, unnecessary, thoughts, and then started diggingthrough the bag for the message-in-a-bottle. Her hands touched the lose parts of the silky ribbons that the bottle was bound in, practically glued to the glass of the bottle, and pulled it out of her bag. The dark blue glass twinkling at her she did.

She unenthusiastically pulled off the bottle’s cork with her teeth, not bothering to take her other hand out of the bag at first, until she needed it to catch the rolled up letter as she shook it out of the bottle.

“What is it now.” she muttered to herself, though it probably didn’t sound quite right with the cork in her mouth. She put the bottle down on the floor and, with her now free hand, took the cork in between her index and middle finger, as she opened the letter in her hand.

“Princess Harriet Frodesdotter

Seeing is believing, it might be possible to quell the worries of the common folk for a short while but simply saying that you are fine. The honourable men that have set out to find you however, would clearly see through such a thing, they will not believe you to be fine until they make sure you are. It’s understandable that _you_ would be confused about such a thing, please remember that there are people, noblemen, out there that actually can see when they are lied to.

We realise that we hadn’t quite made it clear to how you should act in returning to your rightful place in the last letter. It’s very simple, but should have to be explained to you nonetheless. We know how you are with instructions after all.

First, show yourself to the closest figure of authority in the town you’re in. Second, show them your signet ring (we do hope you haven’t gone and lost it), this will...”

Eddas eyes started glazing over as the instructions went on. What was even the point of reading them anyway? Like she didn’t know that the damn signet ring could be used to authorise her as the princess. They hadn’t even tried to respond to her statement about being busy with work at all yet.

She groaned and threw her head back, for a few seconds just staring at the wooden ceiling in frustration.

...Was that the reason the dumb ring had been slipped into her stuff? So she could identify herself for when they expected her to return?

She put the letter aside on the bathroom sink and started digging through her bag, pulling out the small cloth package she had hoped not to have to think about for the whole journey. She unwrapped it and stared blankly at the ring as it rested on the cloth.

That day when it had appeared in her bag had been the first time she had ever gotten to really touch it. The king and the queen had always said that the royal regalia was only supposed to be handled by adult royalty, though Harriet had never gotten to finally receive her royal regalia even after her 18th birthday, or her 19th birthday for that matter. (All despite the fact that prince Gustav got his regalia at 16! The same year she turned 18.)

...Maybe that had been what, at first, stopped her from truly getting rid of it, the chance of possibly being...acknowledged...

She let out a bitter laugh, she had stoped believing in that being a possibility pretty soon after that, as she started receiving the letters through the message in a bottle. But it still stung to get it truly confirmed the idea was nothing but a pipe dream. It felt as if she has swallowed acid.

Shaking her head, she repacked the ring in the cloth, and dropped it back into her bag. Maybe she could find a nice lake to discard it into at some point, but that had to be something to think about for later.

Returning to the letter, she skipped over the outdrawn and pedantic instructions, that she wasn’t planning on following anyway, and picked up where it ended. There wasn’t much after it though, just a short comment about her now knowing what to do, if she wished to “do right for her subjects”, and then the royal families signatures, echoing the end of the last letter.

Edda took out her dagger and set the letter on fire, dropping it into the sink and simply watching it as it crumpled and turned into ash. It was therapeutic in a way. She could thankfully wash away any signs of her small act of pyromania by simply starting the sink.

Then it was the matter of responding.

Taking out her notebook and haphazardly tearing out a page of it, she began scribbling a short and concise response.

“Hello all,

As I said in my last letter, I am currently busy, with work, and will be so in the conceivable future. The noblemen looking for the princess aren’t some rabid dogs that are out of your control, and don’t they have their own duties to fulfil?

Harriet.”

Rolled the paper up, stuck it into the bottle, jammed back the cork into it’s mouth, dropped it into her bag, and, taking a deep breath to collect herself, she left the bathroom.

—

The silence between Arthur and the storeowner was long and somewhat awkward. Arthur had multiple times caught himself about to interrogate the man about the brother who yelled those hurtful things towards Edda, but the feeling that she wouldn’t appreciate him doing so behind her back stopped him every time. If she said she was fine and over if, then he probably should trust her that it was, even if every bone in his body was screaming to him to do something to stand up against the bastard in her name.

But that wasn’t the only topic his mind got stuck on.

“So,” Arthur started, “You know if there’s going to be any other dances tomorrow? Maybe in the middle of the day? Or in the morning?”

The store owner looked up from whatever he was doing behind the counter and Arthur immediately felt himself shrink back to being a dwarf.

“Not really sir?” He said in a confused tone. “The couple dances where specific to this evening?”

“I see,” Arthur muttered to himself, he wasn’t sure why he had asked. He doubted that Edda was in any mood to dance at all after what had happened, especially with her being so tired. So tried that she ended up remembering something bad and started crying after he asked too dance with her... He wondered if he could even get another chance to dance with her for a while, he wanted to make it up too her, and not have her start crying. Though maybe it was something he had to wait with until after the curse was broken. Then he could for sure show her a great time on the dance floor.

The door to the restroom opened with a squeak, making Arthur look over as Edda stepped out of it. She looked very tired, no doubt from the long day, the busy crowds and the hours of work at the library. She really needed to be able to rest.

“Ready to get to the inn Miss Edda?” Arthur asked, giving the storeowner a quick nod as goodbye before walking up to Edda and offering his hand.

“Yeah,” a small smile spread across Eddas lips as she accepted Arthur’s hand, “Yeah, I think I am.”

With a short goodbye to the storeowner, they once again excited out into the chilly evening air, or maybe the night air, Arthur wasn’t entirely sure what time it was. He could still hear the distant sound of music from the town centre echo through the streets, so maybe it wasn’t that late?

Either way they started walking in silence towards the inn, Arthur looked around the street where vendors had once been, but had now packed down and left for the night, at the papers hung on the walls of a few buildings advertising the bigger events of the day, and he looked at Edda as the evening wind caught her hair and made it flutter beautifully around her face.

She looked over at him and then immediately adverted her gaze as her face flushed. A short awkward cackle came out of her lips.

“So...Today sure has been a lot.” She pushed hair out of her face.

“Yeah,” Arthur agreed “It’s a shame though, with all this curse breaking business we barely had the time to do anything in this festival.” Just because the couple dances was off the table didn’t mean that he wasn’t sort of excited to just, have fun with her.

“Well, we are here for business, not for fun.” Edda said with a small snort, shooting him a small amused smile.

“Why not both.” He said, laying on the charm as he smiled up at her. Though he couldn’t deny that it had been at least a little bit fun to watch as she excitedly went through the books in the library, he wondered briefly how she would react to the library in Camelot. Maybe he could show her it in the future. No, he was definitely going to show her it in the future. He could already imagine how her face would shine in excitement as he pushed the large door to it open for her.

“Well, it’s your curse that is being delayed from being cured by doing so,” she snickered, “if you really want to do some stuff before we leave tomorrow then be my guest.”

“Really?” His mind was already listing up possible things to do with her, was there maybe somewhere that sold flowers? Or maybe there was a stall selling something sweet he could treat her with? Or maybe he could find a stuffed animal to get to her? That one was always a hit during his old dates. Oh! He should really show her golden goose avenue after the curse gets broken! Maybe there’s a library there as well... He did recall seeing a bookstore there so maybe he could bring her there, let her buy whatever books she wanted, and listen to her as she talked about whatever magic the books where about.

“Yeah,” she smiled at him, “Though I hope it’s okay if we don’t stay too long,” she laughed nervously as she scratched her chin, “it’s nice here, but, well, the crowds, you know.”

Oh right, the crowds. He felt a little bit stupid for forgetting in his excitement, but he didn’t let that stop him for too long. This just meant he had to fit all possible date ideas into a small bit of time, he could do that!

“Don’t worry M’lady,” He said, stopping his walk to grasp her hand with both of his, “Just give me one hour, an I’ll make sure you’ll have the time of your life.”

Edda laughed, that delightful cackling laugh, and raised her free hand to her mouth as she did, seemingly in an attempt to stifle it.

“That’s sweet of you,” she said as her laughter tapered off, “but wasn’t the point that you would get to have fun?” she grinned at him, with an eyebrow raised.

He scoffed dramatically.

“And let a, lovely lady, as yourself not enjoy herself? No, not on Arthur’s watch.” He said with gusto, happily watching as she hid another bout of laughter under her hand.

She lowered her hand and gave his cheek a gentle nudge, making his heart flutter as she shot him an amused grin.

“Alright then, you little charmer, but right now we should probably get to the inn,” she turned her gaze forward towards the street, “I don’t know when they stop serving dinner, but I’m willing to bet it’s soon.”

Arthur felt his stomachs grumble, and he let out a short nervous chuckle.

“Yeah, you’re right.” He scratched his neck and they started walking again.

The inn thankfully still had their kitchen up and going by the time they got there, thought it did seem like they had gotten lucky getting there by the time they did, as there was only one empty room left. Edda had taken the key to the room with a grateful, but nervous, smile, and then they had made their way to the room.

“I wonder if we’re going to have to share a room in the next inn as well,” Edda said with a snort as they walked through the hallway where their room was supposed to be, “at this point we’re one more incident like this away from it becoming a pattern.”

Arthur shrugged a little bit.

“I wouldn’t complain if it did,” he said truthfully, he had found it pretty wonderful to fall asleep with her visage in front of him. But then again, he would hate to make her uncomfortable. “...does it bother you Miss Edda?”

Eddas pretty lips formed into a small ‘o’ as he spoke, and her cheeks flushed. She adverted her gaze away from him, her eyes darting all over the place.

“I- If you’re okay with it then, it’s fine.” she muttered out, fumbling with the key to the room in her hand. She looked really stunning when she was flustered.

“Oh! There’s the room.” She said suddenly, picking up her pace as she rushed up to the door and unlocked it. Arthur moved up beside her again, just in time for the door to open up to a room.

With a singular bed in it.

There was a beat of silence, spare the faint swear Edda mumbled out under her breath.

Arthur was the first to take the initiative, from what he knew about Edda she didn’t seem like someone who would be comfortable sharing a bed, usually meant for one person, with someone else. Which meant that, even if the idea engulfing her in his arms while she slept soundly against his chest made his heart beat, really fast, there was only one option.

“I’ll sleep on the floor.” he said walking into the room.

“Like hell you are!” Edda said as she followed him inside, closing the door after her. “I’m not going to sleep in a bed while you have to sleep on the cold hard floor, are you out of your mind?”

He turned to her where she stood with both hands on her hip and a serious look on her face. He felt a little bit surprised by her refusal, though maybe he shouldn’t have been. She was after all a very caring person, so it did make sense for her to not want him to sleep on the floor.

“Is there any other option you have in mind?” He asked curiously.

“I can sleep on the floor.” She said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“What? No!” He exclaimed, shocked she would even suggest such a thing. “I could never sleep in a bed knowing a sweet maiden like you are sleeping on the floor!”

“Well,” she crossed her arms, her face regained some of the red tint from before, “it’s either me in the floor or we just share the damn bed!” Her eyes widened suddenly as she seemed to realise what she was saying, her arms uncrossing. “I- Not so say that you- Maybe we both should just sleep in floor?”

“...Do you want to share the bed with me Edda?” He couldn’t help to ask, his heart was beating out of his chest at the thought.

“I-“ Edda grimaced awkwardly, her eyes jumping all over the room, red all over her face. “You shouldn’t have to if you don’t want to. Let’s just sleep on the floor, both of us.”

He took a step forward.

“I-“ he paused, thinking over what to say, not wanting to come across as too pushy. “I wouldn’t mind sharing the bed with you... At least not if you didn’t mind it.”

Edda gaped at him for a second, her beautiful eyes meeting his.

“Oh! Uh,” she scratched her cheek as she looked down at the floorboards. “I mean, if you don’t have any problem with it then sure, we can share it.” She took a small look at the bed. “It might get a bit cramped though, on account of, well, me.” She gestured vaguely to herself.

He let out a light chuckle.

“Don’t worry about that Edda, if anything I’m going to be the one taking up the most space once it’s dark.” he puffed out his chest in emphasis, which seem to lure out a small laugh from Edda, who seemed to be regaining her posture.

“Right.” she said with a small snicker, she looked at him for a few seconds, a soft smile on her face before she cleared her throat. “So, uh, I’m gonna go brush my teeth now.”

“Oh, yeah. Me to.” Arthur said, snapping out of the haze he was in from looking at her.

They went though their nightly routines in silence, comfortable silence. Arthur found himself sparing a few glances at her over his shoulder, once even managing to almost catch her looking over at him, which made him stomach feel like it was filled with butterflies.

Eventually they moved into the bed, Edda laying down first with her back turned to the middle, she was blushing again.

Arthur paused for a bit as he sat on his side of the bed and looked at her. He wasn’t making her uncomfortable now was he? He carefully put his hand on her shoulder and gently brushed his thumb against the cloth of her nightgown.

“Edda... I can sleep on the floor if you’re uncomfortable with me sleeping in the same bed as you.” He spoke delicately, watching her dark brown hair fall against the pillow as she moved her head to look at him sternly.

“If you decided to sleep on the floor now, I swear I will roll off this bed and just sleep in the position I land in.” She said in a resolute tone, even though her cheeks were still tinted pink.

Arthur couldn’t stop the grin from spreading on his face as she turned away from him again with a small huff.

“If you say so M’lady.” He replied softly. He was just about to slip in, his hand holding up the edge of the sheet, as she turned over to look at him.

She opened her mouth to say something, but seemed to stop herself, her hand pressed against her cheek in thought.

“...Yes Edda?” He asked, curious to what she was thinking of saying.

“Oh I just...” she grimaced, her eyes flickered from him to her hand, making him rapidly switch from human to dwarf as she did. “IsitokayifIhugyou?” She finally sputtered out.

“Sorry what?” He asked, not entirely being able to catch what she was saying.

Edda took a deep breath, and put her hands together as she prepared to speak.

“So I, usually sleep while hugging a pillow, don’t ask why because I’m not sure myself. But there’s no spare pillow here right now, trust me I checked, so I thought that maybe I could ask if...” she made a face as her voice tapered off, but Arthur found himself too distracted by what she was implying to even think about that.

“...You want me to be the pillow you hug?” He unconsciously leaned towards her in happiness, feeling even happier as she slowly nodded, looking a bit confused over his excitement.

“Only if you’re okay with it of course.” She said holding up her hands.

“I am!” He said slipping under the covers and scooting over to her. “Let my presence in your arms comfort you M’lady.”

“Oh, okay.” She said, pulling him into a hug.

Arthur sighed happily as he leaned into her, it was wonderful.

They simply laid there for a bit before Edda’s head perked up.

“We forgot to turn of the lights.”

After the lights had been properly turned off and they resumed their hugging positions, Edda now leaning into Arthur’s chest as she seemed to slowly doze off. It was just as Arthur had imagine it, simply amazing, and with a happy sigh he let his arms circle around her as well, one of his arms carefully brushing against her hair.

The music from the town centre could faintly be heard from the window, they really were keeping the dance up into the night.

Edda shifted slightly, her eyes opening a bit as Arthur felt himself shrink in her arms, making him be practically face to face with her. He was about to ask her if something was bothering her, but she spoke up before he could say anything.

“I’m sorry that you didn’t get to dance back there, I- I’m not a fan of dancing around people.” She whispered softly.

At first Arthur found himself surprised by her confession, but then he realised that maybe he should have suspected as much from what she had previously had told him about her and crowds. He felt stupid for not realising it sooner, and now she was the one apologising to him? Arthur leaned forward onto her shoulder and tenderly petted the back of her head.

“You don’t need to apologise for that,” he muttered into her hair. “It’s alright if you don’t want to dance with other people around.”

“...Thank you...Goodnight Arthur.”

Arthur turned back into his human form, a soft smile on his face as he looked down at Edda, a small smile on her face as well as she slowly started to nod off.

“Goodnight Edda.” He muttered out before he himself started going off to dreamland.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the patience! This chapter did take longer to finish than I expected, but here it finally is!  
> I promise Edda will figure her emotions out soon enough, though I can’t say how that will happen or how she would deal with it, just yet.  
> So in last chapter’s end notes I said I was going to bring up any fun trivia about that chapter in this chapters end notes. That’s mostly because the trivia is mostly related to the statue in the town centre, as it is based on this old folk song called “Stolt Signhild” (or a variant of that namne) which is a song about a woman, implied to have a history with fighting, saying her brother from his seven enemies after they corner him on his way home. The name Gyllende Street is a reference to the golden horn her brother has to blow in order to alert his sister about his distress (Gyllene=Golden). The wine she is depicted to be holding in the statue is a reference to how she is described “brewing” wine in the song. I like to think that in wayward she’s the founder of Bergeleva and that’s why wine brewing was mentioned last chapter. The song has honestly lived rent free in my head since I was little so while I never had time to figure out a way to fit signhild herself into Wayward, I did wanna have her leave some sort of mark, however small it be. Even if it was mostly to make a town seem more alive and real.  
> Anyway, thank you for reading this chapter, I hope you had a nice day! :]


	16. In which Edda has a realisation

Harriet could barely control her panicked breaths as the broken metal toy soldier hung limply in her hand. She hadn’t meant to do it! She hadn’t realised how frail the waist really was! Until it was too late...She had to do something! She had to fix it! If he saw it like this he would-

She felt herself tense up, but then strangely relax as a odd, foreign, and warm sensation lingered over her body. Making her feel strangely calm...

“You broke him, didn’t you.” A cold voice made her immediately tense again, and she shakily turned to look at the shape of her brother standing a few feet away from her, blocking the light from the crystal chandelier.

His cold eyes looked at her with barely contained rage as he took one step closer to him. And then the shapes of the rest of her family joined him, grabbing a hold of his shoulders.

“You can’t be too mad,” her mother whispered, “the girl is too stupid to know better, she probably doesn’t even know why or that it’s broken.”

“It was probably one of the staff that put her up to this!” her sister hissed “She’s so easily influenced, this is why I said we need to keep an eye on who we let her talk to!”

“She’ll get her punishment soon enough,” her father muttered sternly “She can hardly break any more of your things if she’s locked up in her room.”

Harriet tried to put distance between her and her family, and for a moment it felt like it had almost worked. Warmth lingering on her body. But then she felt her brothers glare pierce through her body once again.

“They’re all blind,” her brother said as the rest of the family around him melted away, “but I can see what you really are.” He started growing in size, threatening to throw a dark shadow over her entire body.

“A cruel unfeeling monster.”

As he spoke the shape of two lions came up from behind him.

“That can feel neither guild, nor regret.”

The lions pounced, their metal plates glistening dangerously as their jaws opened wide and their metallic claws unsheathed.

And then.

Warmth.

In the blink of an eye the lions was cut in twain, the halves melting as they were suspended in midair, splashing into small puddles onto the marble floor. Disappearing, along with the shadowy shape of her brother.

A gentle hand touched her shoulder.

“Are you alright Edda?”

Edda looked over her shoulder at Arthur who smiled sweetly at her, his soft eyes looking at her with pure adoration.

“Y-yes.” She felt her heart pick up speed as she stuttered out her reply. “You’re here after all.”

He grinned at her and pulled her into a warm hug, which she eagerly returned, slowly rubbing her back as he mumbled kind and reassuring words into her ear. It was strange, his body feeling way larger then she expected, but she couldn’t really bring herself to care about that as she leaned into his shoulder and closed her eyes.

She shifted her body, trying to get in a nicer sitting position and heard the sound of floorboards creaking under her. Opening her eyes she saw she was in her hut, sitting on top of a pile of blankets in front of her blazing fireplace. Two sticks had been stacked up against it, in process of toasting some marshmallows.

Arthur moved back from the hug, looked at the fireplace and smiled.

“Do you like it? I prepared it all myself.” He turned his head to her with one of his stupid grins, that despite how much they made her laugh, still managed to charm her in a way.

“Even the fire?” She asked him with a small snicker. “I could have just activated the fire enchantment for you.”

“I wanted it to be a surprise and I didn’t know how to activate it myself.” he said laughing sheepishly. Edda felt like she could hear him laugh for eternity and never grow tired of it.

“It’s wonderful.” she said looking into his sweet and kind eyes, watching as they reflected the light of the fire beautifully.

He smiled at her again, leaning his forehead against hers. His hands brushing tenderly against her cheek.

“...Gorgeous.” He whispered angling his face to meet her lips.

~~~

Eddas eyes snapped open, face feeling warmer than the inside of a volcano. What in the shit was that dream!?

She didn’t get the time to think about it too much, as she realised that she was laying face to face, or well, nose to nose, to the very person that she had just dreamt about kissing. With a loud yelp and a swear, she instinctually tried to remove herself from the situation, kicking forward and tumbling out of the bed onto her back. Arthur, having her torso in a death grip, followed down with her.

“Huh? Wha- Edda!?” He exclaimed, going from groggy to alert and reaching his hand back for his sword in a second, looking around them for any possible danger.

“False alarm Arthur, sorry.” Edda mumbled, staring at the ceiling, not sure how she was supposed to explain herself this time. The last moments she could remember from her dream before waking up playing on loop in her head. Had she really dreamt that???

“Edda?” She heard Arthur’s hand firmly place down on the floor beside her shoulder, and then saw him leaning into her view. His eyes worried. “Was it another bad dream?”

“No,” she said without really thinking, “I mean, it was at first, but then... I don’t know... it was... just weird...” she gestured with one of her hands in the air, trying to grasp for, something, an explanation, an adjective, a tangible meaning. But if that something was there she failed to reach it.

“Oh, that’s probably good right? Dreams are usually pretty confusing,” a small grin crossed his face, “a few nights ago I had a dream a green giant wanted someone to cut him with a huge axe. But then when someone did, cutting his head of with one clean swing, he just happily picked up his head and walked away!”

Edda laughed lightly at the story, pushing herself up to a sitting position with her arms, letting Arthur slide off her torso and plop onto her lap.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” she said, pushing some wayward strands of hair out of her face and looking down at him as he gave her a big dopey smile. His usual hair style had been messed up during his sleep and she suddenly got an odd urge to run her fingers through it.

“What was it that was so weird about your dream then Edda?” Arthur asked curiously, tilting his head to the side.

Edda felt her face heat up again as she realised how the pose they were in was almost identical to the one from her dream. All she needed to do was lean down a little and she could-

“Oh! It’s nothing special!” She laughed nervously, trying to purge the thoughts from her head. “Just some weird, and embarrassing, stuff, really nothing if substance!”

Don’t think about kissing him, don’t think about kissing him, _don’t think about kissing him_! What is wrong with you!? Why would you even think about that???

“Well, I wouldn’t want to make a beautiful maiden embarrassed,” Arthur chuckled pleasantly, making Edda’s already flustered emotional state even worse. “Forget I asked.”

“It’s fine.” Edda croaked out, trying not to get lost in the way he looked at her. Such, affectionate and kind eyes.

Oh no, she was doing it again!!!

“Aaaaanyway,” she studied the lines in the wooden floorboards. “Let’s get this day started? I need to brush my hair.” She threw one careful glance back at Arthur.

“Right!” Arthur said with a large grin, “got a lot to do today, better get ready early! How wise of you M’lady.” He lifted her hand and, after silently asking permission with a look, (permission that she, _for some reason_ gave) he sweetly kissed the back of her hand.

Edda hoped he hadn’t heard the way she’d harshly inhaled. She wasn’t sure why, but she was never prepared for when he kissed her hand, even when he clearly stated he was going to do it.

Arthur meanwhile shot her one of his wonderful toothy smiles and got out of her lap, gingerly helping her up onto her feet. His thumb tenderly dragging across her fingers before he finally let his hand slip out of hers. Edda only managed to mumble a small thanks, rubbing her hands together, as he smiled at her sweetly, before walking to his side of the bed, probably to start his morning routine.

Soon enough Edda started hers as well, sitting on her side of the bed, having changed out of her night gown, silently brushing her hair. Trying not to look over at Arthur as he, very loudly, seemed to do some morning exercises. It was an odd habit of his, one that she had never really seen before, but then again, she had never really spent this long with another person before. It was fully possible it was just a completely normal thing that she just hadn’t been able to grasp, it would hardly be the first time she had that sort of misunderstanding. Though the thing in the library had definitely been something out of the ordinary, she had spent many hours in multiple different libraries, so she should know if it was a common occurrence.

Either way she decided it wasn’t something she needed to, or should, really think about and her mind drifted away to other topics of interest. For a while she just thought about the old book she had packed to read, leading to her feeling guilty over not reading it that much during the trip. It was actually a collection of a few shorter stories, that she had found a secondhand store back home. Her favorite story from the collection actually taking the form of a play script, and telling the tale of a man of wealth, magically creating a second persona so he could escape the rules of the high society. The story didn’t end to well for the man, trying, but being unable to, balance his old and new life. Eventually leading to his gruesome death. There was something about the story that resonated with Edda, and she often found herself returning to it.

Either way, she slipped off the bed, hunching down by her bag to pick up a hair tie, which of course took longer than it should, making her wonder why she hadn’t done anything to organise the damn thing yet. She finally found a hair tie, and stood up with a small huff. She would have to remind herself to organise it later, when they got to Endeslättaren.

She started pacing around the room, absentmindedly trying to put up her hair, thinking about the final library on their big excursion. It was probably the library she was most familiar with, besides the one in the town back home of course. She remember that the few times she got to leave the castle, attended by a guard and a nanny of course, she would visit Endeslättaren and it’s library. As a child, and then as a teen and young adult, the big building with it’s many floors and many many bookshelves, had always been a big source of happiness for her. She remembered dragging her hand over the books spines in the bookshelves, gaining a sort of simple joy from feeling the bumpiness and diverse textures under her fingertips.

She smiled and took a sharp turn to stop her from walking straight into the wall.

It had definitely been over two years since she had been there last, she wondered if anything had changed. Had they maybe switched some sections around? Did they still have that small seat by the window that let you look out over the town from above, tracing the smoke from the small chimneys up to the sky?

They would probably have to be careful though, Endeslättaren being as big as it is, meant that the royal family did have more of a presence there. Like the big mansion that they occasionally liked to hold their ‘smaller’ balls in, which also had that weird tunn-

The sole of Edda’s foot suddenly came in contact with something, making it shoot forward and leading to her loosing her balance for a moment. She was just about to take quick step back in order to stop herself from falling on her ass. But she was stopped as she felt two hands take a steady hold of her arms, and her back meet a warm body.

Instinctively, she looked over her shoulder, but had to immediately snap her gaze forward again as his hands disappeared and she almost toppled over again.

“You okay there M’lady?” Arthur said with a small awkward laugh as his hands held her arms again, he was speaking way too close to her ear. “Probably should have put Excalibur somewhere else, in a less, trippable spot, sorry about that.”

Excalibur? Oh right.

She looked down at the sword in front of her feet.

“O-oh, it’s fine, I probably should have looked where I was going.” She said, moving her legs back to regain her balance, unintentionally steadying herself against him and putting one of her hands on one of his.

They just stood there for a short moment. Edda resisting her urge to lean back against him and envelop herself in his warmth again, as she dropped her hand away from his.

“...You can let me go now?” _Why_ was he still holding onto her?

“Oh! Right.” Arthur said, letting go of her and stepping back. “Sorry.”

Edda turned and looked at him as he grinned sheepishly up at her, the morning sunlight from the window shining breathtakingly against him and making his eyes shimmer. Her chest was overtaken by that overwhelming warm feeling once again.

“It’s alright,” she choked out as she turned to him fully, scrambling for a change of topic or something to distract herself with. “Are you ready to look over the map yet?”

“Sure,” Arthur smiled, before looking down at himself, “though maybe I should get a shirt on first.”

“Yeah, good point.” Eddas hand shot up to her hair which was still hanging free. “And I still haven’t put up my hair yet.”

Returning to her side of the bed she started working on getting her hair into a bun, it had probably been a pretty dumb idea to start pacing around before. It’s pretty hard to get control over your hair when you’re busy speed walking all over the room. Finally getting the hair in the place she wanted she reached to pick up her hair tie and...

The hair tie was not on the bed.

Oh, wait she never put the hair tie on the bed did-

“I think you dropped this Edda.” Arthur stood in front of her, now fully dressed, holding out her hair tie to her.

She wasn’t sure why such a normal and simple gesture of kindness made her heart try to escape her chest, but it did.

“Yeah... Thank you.” she mumbled as she reached out and took the hair tie from his palm. His fingertips touched the inside of her palm as she did. She tried not to think about it.

“Anytime M’lady.” He grinned at her stupidly as he leaned against the side of the bed, prompting her to snicker as she secured the bun with the hair tie.

“Okay!” She said, slapping her hands down into her thighs, trying to shake her out if whatever mood she had been in for almost the entire morning. “Now that that’s done, let’s look at that map, right Arty?”

He gave her a sharp nod.

Looking over the map went pretty smoothly, and they were pretty quickly able to get an idea for what path they could take in order to get to Endeslättaren. It seemed like they probably would be able to get there within a day, even with them taking one hour to just mess around in town before going and them stopping to pick up some Wood Cranesbill. Speaking of which, it did look like there was a few meadows on the way which seemed pretty promising. It also looked like there was an inn on the way there, so maybe they could take the time to stop there for lunch.

Happy with the plans Edda and Arthur packed up and made their way downstairs to drop off the key at the front desk and have something to eat before properly getting the day started. The inns cook made a small comment on them making up for being late for dinner by being early to breakfast, as he watched them walk into the small, but cosy, dining hall.

Edda hadn’t really thought about it, but they really were up early today, something that became even more evident as they stepped out to the town’s streets again. It wasn’t desolate by any means, but it was far from as crowded as it had been when they had gotten there yesterday, mostly people just meandering around and sellers just finishing setting up their stalls.

It sort of reminded Edda about when she would visit the town back home every week to sell her potions and charms and such, if it was a usual week she would have been out doing that yesterday, she realised. A part of her felt a little bit bad about not being there at home for that, but she knew that everyone in town probably was sort of expecting a little absence from her, after she told her landlady about her being away for maybe about two weeks, or after asking Ulf for a list of the towns with the books she was looking for in the library. The town was small and rumours there sure spread like wildfire.

Besides that though, she had work to do, and she was going to do it, even if it did sort of messed up her internal schedule for a few days. She was going to help Arthur.

Speaking of Arthur, as soon as they had left the inn he had turned to her and declared that he was going to make this the most enjoyable hour she had ever had. Of course making her laugh a little at his ridiculous statement, before he offered her his hand, which she happily took. The warmth of it spreading from her hand to all over her body, and she had to take a moment to collect herself before they began walking.

“So,” Arthur said as they began walking, giving her quick glances in between looking over at all the stalls that littered the side of the streets, “Anything that piques your interest M’lady?” He gestured broadly in front of them.

“Is there anything that piques _your_ interest Arty?” She retorted with a snicker, which evolved into a small laugh as he gave her a puzzled look. “Honestly though,” she patted his head, it was back to his usual hairstyle, “I’m okay with just looking around from stall to stall, it’s not like I’m looking to buy anything specific.”

Arthur nodded seriously, though the corner of his mouth did seem to twitch up a little bit, as if he was processing what she had told him.

“Alright,” he said with a self assured smile, ”let’s do that then.”

They walked from stall to stall, making small comments on the things that where being sold. There was, unsurprisingly plenty of handmade stuff, be it yarn, small toys, or jewellery. Edda found herself particularly fond of a stall selling beautifully bound notebooks, most of which were sadly out of Eddas budget. Arthur had been pretty quick to offer to buy whatever book she wanted for her, but she firmly denied, she still had plenty of space in her old notebook and she already had a unused one waiting for her back in her hut anyway. He seemed to understand and they moved on.

Then there was the stalls selling consumable wares. There was plenty of food, that they sadly were too full to eat of, having already had breakfast just a few minutes prior. There was also the less foodie selling sweet tasting things. They both ended up spending way to long trying all the different honey that one stall gave out free samples of. Edda wasn’t the biggest fan of sweets in general, but she could appreciate honey just fine, so long it was in relatively smaller doses. And the small wooden sticks used to sample the honey with was perfect for just that.

She hummed as she tasted the bit of peppermint flavoured honey, it tasted interesting, she gave them that. Though she wasn’t sure how one could really use it, or the other jars, of what she only could really describe as ‘novelty honey’. All flavoured with something extra, like the chocolate flavoured one Arthur currently was sampling.

“That’s got to taste like, unbearably sweet.” she said to him as she threw the sampling stick in a basket by the side of the stall.

Arthur’s eyes gave of a small mischievous glint and he leaned against the edge of the stall, which was about head height for him.

“Noh ah-“ he stopped himself to remove the stick from his mouth, and threw it into the basket as well, before returning to his leaning position. “Not as sweet as the wonderful maiden before me.”

Edda couldn’t help but laugh, even if she felt her face heat up at his words. Something about his sweetness mixed with how ridiculous he was acting, just made her feel oddly light. It was strange, and she couldn’t really say she knew why it happened, but she wasn’t sure if she really was that against it.

“Aren’t you feeling extra charming today Arty?” She joked, as she nudged his shoulder with her fist.

“Just for you M’lady.” he grinned up at her, his face loosing the odd look from before.

Edda shook her head at him, but couldn’t help to smile back as they continued to the next stall.

It was the stall of two woodworkers, their smaller wares places neatly in the table in-front of them. and the bigger ones hanging behind them on a large wooden board, that otherwise served as the stands backdrop. Eddas attention was however split between the small figure that one of the woodworkers was in the middle of carving for a young boy who bounced excitedly in front of the stall, and the small wooden pendants that hung from the roof of the stall above a sign reading; “will carve personalised pendants for 2 silver”.

The words of Nini suddenly returned to Edda.

_“Why not carve the spell into the non metal part of your dagger? It is wood?”_

The child happily reached forward to receive the figurine, and skipped away, as Edda and Arthur reached the stall.

The other woodworker that hadn’t been working the figurine turned her head to them, smiled and nodded in acknowledgement.

Edda nodded back, pulled out her dagger and held it out to her with both hands.

“Could you carve something into this?” She tapped her fingers against the handle specifically.

“Sure?” The woodworker looked a bit surprised by her straightforwardness but nodded along, leaning forward to eye the handle.

“Oh, is this for the spell you mentioned yesterday, Miss Edda?” Arthur asked.

“Yeah,” she looked over at him, trying not to think about how the tilt of his head made her heartbeat pick up, “This would be preferable to my, frankly amateur, carving skills, don’t wanna ruin such a nice handle.”

“That is a very nice handle indeed Miss.” The woodworker that had just finished brushing of wood chips from his clothes, said as he glanced over at the handle as well.

“Simple,” the other woodworker noted as she leaned back up from looking at the handle, “but yes, very nice.” She looked at it in thought for moment before looking up at Edda. “It’ll be about... 4-5 silver, give or take a few coppers, Miss magic lady. What exactly do you want on it?”

Edda excitedly laid the dagger on the table and dug up her notebook to show the woodworker the channeling spell. The woodworker nodded along with her explanation, and after they landed on a more precise price and Edda payed her, she went to work.

Edda bounced on her feet, having completely forgotten about the confusing feeling in her chest for a moment. Feeling thrilled over new possible magic opportunities that would open up with the channeling spell, not only the explosion spell. Though she was excited over what she could do with that spell too of course, maybe some magic fireworks? She imagined she would have to experiment with it a bit first though, maybe she could see of she could find the same runemagic book in Endeslättaren, and look if there was any useful leaping off points there.

Catching herself hovering over the woodworker like a hawk, Edda adverted her eyes to look at the items that littered the stalls table. And then as she looked to her side she saw Arthur leaning against the table, his cheek in his hand and looking up at her with his large eyes.

Edda felt that her breath was caught in her throat for a moment, there was the feeling again, before she quickly looked back down at the table. Then she felt kinda bad.

“Sorry for taking up time by having this done,” she said sheepishly, it felt sort of selfish for her to stop everything for something that she knew might be pretty boring for others. “I guess I forgot the,” she gestured into the air trying to find the right word to use “purpose, of this whole outing for a moment.” He wanted to have some fun, and there she was, stoping them dead in their tracks to get her dagger carved.

Arthur looked as if he had just snapped out of a daze, (she’d briefly looked behind herself, trying to figure out what on earth had put him in one in the first place, but strangely enough found nothing) before he shook his head and grinned at her.

“No worries M’lady, nothing wrong with indulging in your interest for a bit, though,” he looked over at where the other woodworker were hard at work. Or well tried to, his eyes being far up enough to just look past the edge of the table. “I do wonder what you’re supposed to do with a explosion spell?” He raised his eyebrows at her.

She shrugged, and couldn’t help but shoot him a grin.

“Magic explosions sounds cool.” And after some short deliberation she added, “Also twice enchanted dagger awesome.”

He looked slightly confused for a moment, before his face cracked into a smile and he let out a small but boisterous sounding laugh. She couldn’t help but to join him with some small snickers, there was something strangely infectious of that wonderfully pleasant laugh of his, what exactly it was she couldn’t put a finger on.

“A twice enchanted dagger does sound pretty awesome, you got me there.” He smiled, gesturing his finger towards her. He then took a sort pause, looking somewhat lost in thought. “...I did mention that Excalibur is probably enchanted right?”

“I mean, I assumed it was based on the whole stuck in a stone for centuries thing,” Edda said with a small shrug as she glanced at the lumpy sheath on his back. “Didn’t we talk it a few days ago? Why’re you asking now?”

“Oh, just thought,” he looked at her a little aimlessly, “if you’re a fan of enchanted weapons, shouldn’t such a legendary sword, pulled out by Arthur here,” he seemed to regain a bit more confidence as he spoke “be of some interest for you?”

She raised her eyebrows at him, to be fair, it did seem a little interesting to her. She was never that strongly aware of the story of the sword after all, so a part of her was curious to learn more, but.

“You seemed very attached to it, I didn’t want to, I don’t know, be weird about it?” She scratched her cheek awkwardly, remembering the scared look on his face from a few days ago when he had almost lost the sword. Also, everything else that had been happening in the last week had effectively distracted her from really thinking too much about the sword. Even the rock stuck in it had been something she’d just accepted and got used to, and that seemed to be the thing that stood out most about it, at least visually.

“You don’t have to be afraid of that,” Arthur said enthusiastically, “You look so lovely when you’re excited and-“

“What?” Edda said, unintentionally cutting him off. What on earth did he mean by that?

“Excuse me Miss?” The voice from the woodworker piped up, making Edda turn away from Arthur, “your dagger is done.” The woodworker held out her newly carved dagger, the spell beautifully ingrained into the handle, looking as if it had always been meant to be a part of it.

“Oh shit,” she mumbled under her breath as she reached out and took the dagger. “Thank you.” She could feel she was smiling ear to ear, and hoped it didn’t look too demented.

“It was a pleasure.” The woodworker simply said.

It took Edda a few seconds to tear her eyes away from the dagger to put it back in it’s sheath, and she found herself bouncing on her toes as they walked away from the stall and into the town centre. Arthur seemed to notice as he let out a small laugh.

“Aren’t you very bouncy right now Edda?” He said, picking up his pace to keep up with her, Edda just noticing how she was almost dragging him.

Feeling a bit guilty she slowed down her walking to give his legs a break.

“Yeah, sorry.” She scratched behind her head awkwardly.

“Don’t be.” He squeezed her hand softly, leaning against her arm as he looked up at her. “Your joy is an incredible sight to behold.”

“Uh, Okay.” Edda was unsure of what to make of what he was saying, though something about it, maybe how he was looking at her so sweetly, made the warm feeling return to her chest.

“Anyway, where to go next?” She looked at the two other streets that led away from the town centre. “I held us up for a bit back there so you choose.”

Arthur looked thoughtfully at the two options, squinting his eyes. Brightening up as if he had spotted something fun and he took a hold of her forearm to pull it close.

“That one, M’lady.” He gave a sharp nod towards the street directly in front of them.

She nodded with a small snicker and they went to walk down the street that they’ve found the library on yesterday.

It seemed like what he had spotted before was a small sweet stand, as he immediately steered them towards it when they entered the street. There was already two customers at the stand however, so Edda and Arthur had to stand a bit by the side and eye the wares from there. Or well...

“...Miss Edda?” Arthur suddenly asked, tugging at her arm, making her look down. “I can’t see any of the sweets properly, could you maybe pick me up?”

Edda had barely registered his question, his sweet eyes once again making her feel warm on the inside, but before she knew it she had, as if on autopilot, picked him up in her arms. His hands took a hold of her shoulder as if trying to steady himself, he then lifted his head and smiled at her.

“Thank you M’lady.”

“Uh, yeah don’t mention it.” The sudden awareness that their faces where only inches apart hit her, and she began to try to move him so he was facing away from her and could actually see the sweets stall.

Arthur laughed, that absurdly pleasant laugh that made her feel like there was ants rushing around in her stomach, and patted her shoulder.

“You don’t have to do that, Edda.” He let go off one of her shoulders, putting his weight on the opposite arm, and slid the hand that still rested on her shoulder down behind her head and up on her other shoulder, resting the side of his upper torso against her chest.

Edda managed to catch on to what he was doing and shifted her grip on him slightly so he could comfortably sit, leaning against her shoulder... with his head very close to hers...

“...Are you okay?“

“Huh, yeah, it’s fine, I just thought about something embarrassing.” She wasn’t, exactly, lying, as the memory of the dream had entered her mind once again. She remember his lips being very soft... and warm...and fucking shit she needed to stop this train of thought right now.

“Oh, alright.” Arthur smiled at her and turned to eye the sweets.

Why was she being like this? Why couldn’t her thoughts just be normal around him? What in the shit was wrong with her?

“Really? How can you be sure? This is the fifth girl this month!” One of the customers said to the other, a girl who let out a content sigh.

“I know, but this girl, she’s just...” there was another sigh.

Edda realised she was listening in to a private conversation and tired to shift her focus to something else. Evidently it didn’t work fast enough as her ears kept picking up what the two ladies at the stall was saying.

“Every time I see or talk to her I just feel _warm_ all over, and I get this _fuzzy feeling_ as if-“

“As if you got butterflies in your belly, I know. You just can’t keep _falling in love_ like this, how do you even...”

_Huh?_

Eddas ears finally filtered out the chatter from the two customers, but what she had heard made her body freeze and her heart almost stop.

Those things she described was, uncomfortably familiar, and the other one had said... was those things a sign of... _Shit_

No no no no no, that couldn’t be it could it?

Memories from what she had read in romance books way back came rushing back to her, feeling flustered, warm, happy, and safe in the embrace of another... Fuck, they were all a sign weren’t they? She even had a dream of kissing him for fuck sake, how did she miss it!?

She didn’t think she was capable of something like this, she had been told she wasn’t capable of something like this, she had _hoped_ she wasn’t capable of something like this. Something so... Vulnerable...

...

Okay, she could deal with this... it was new, but she could deal with it. She just had to ignore it, like she had been doing before! She had to just remind herself that this was only work, and it wasn’t like he felt the same in return, he was just sweet by nature... she didn’t want to make it uncomfortable between them...

Yeah, she could do this.

“Edda? The ladies have finished up now.” Arthur spoke, way to close to her ear, his warm hand on her shoulder rubbing it to bring her back to reality, and shooting her the sweetest smile she’d ever seen.

Oh, she was _so_ fucked.

—

Edda hadn’t let Arthur back down as she walked up to the stall, which wasn’t something he had expected, but with their closeness and how beautifully flushed her cheeks were, he wasn’t about to complain. He could stay leaning onto her shoulder, being held by her, probably forever.

“So uh,” she cleared her throat, her eyes glancing at him for a second before looking away, “Did you figure out what you wanted to get?”

“Yeah,” Arthur said with a nod, turning to look at the vendor who gave him a smile in acknowledgement. “Can I get some of those butterscotch sweets?”

“Of course sir, anything else?” The vendor put a small brown bag labelled butterscotch on the table.

“Any sweet you want to get Edda?” Arthur turned to her, catching her looking at him with her soft eyes, though she quickly adverted them as she realised he was looking back at her.

“Uh, sure,” she mumbled, her eyes darting over the row of sweets sitting on top of the stall table, finally pointing out the small bowl of pitch black hard candies. “Some of those, please?”

“What’s that?” Arthur asked, eyeing the small sweets in the sample bowl. It hadn’t been what he had expected her to pick, maybe something with a berry or a fruity taste, but the sweets he was looking at didn’t look like that at all.

“It’s Liquorice sir,” The vendor said gesturing towards the sign above the bowl, having put the bag labeled as such on the table with the other bag. “Anything else?”

Liquorice? That didn’t look like any liquorice that he knew of, but then again it wasn’t like he knew that much about sweets outside of eating them occasionally. Hans probably knew more about the topic than him. Still, if they were the sweets she wanted, did that mean they were her favorite? If that was the case, he would definitely try to remember that. He wondered if they tasted like the liquorice that he was used to... And if her lips would taste the same...

“No that’s fine,” Edda said to the vendor, “Unless you want anything more Artyyyhur?”

Arthur raised an eyebrow at the way her voice had wavered at the end, but didn’t say anything about it, just gently petting her shoulder in case she needed some comfort. Though she looked mostly to just be sort of confused, and not like she was about to start crying like yesterday.

“If you’re fine with this then so am I, M’lady.” This seemed to bring out a small crooked smile out of Edda as she shook her head a bit before looking at him.

“If you say so Arty.”

He wasn’t sure how she managed to make such a smile look so stunning, but she did, and it, combined with the nickname, made his heart beat faster.

They payed for their small bags of sweets and moved on to look at other stalls. He had been hoping to find a stall selling flowers, like those who was decorating the whole town, but so far he hadn’t found anything. He guessed it didn’t matter that much, so long he could talk and enjoy his time with Edda there, he was happy, and so far he was really enjoying himself.

Arthur also found that he really enjoyed being able to see things at a similar height to the one he had in his human form, easily being able to point things out that caught his eyes to Edda. Plus, with his arm slugged over her shoulder he could imagine that he was back in his princely form and holding her close as he walked beside her.

He might have gotten a little bit too into his fantasy, as he attempted to move his arm so it was around her waist instead. He had almost flopped down onto the ground, were it not for Edda quickly reinforcing her hold on him with both her arms.

“Whoa, what was that?” Edda said to him in surprise as she held him close, but kept walking as if nothing had happened.

“I uh,” Arthur pulled himself up a bit by her shoulders, feeling slight sparks as his thumbs came in contact with the soft skin of her neck, but also generally feeling wonderfully warm all over from her embrace. “Just forgot myself a bit I suppose.”

“Did you forget that I was-“ she stopped herself mid sentence as if she had just realised something herself. “I’m still carrying you.” She looked down at him in shock, finally stopping her walk.

“That you are M’lady.” Arthur grinned up at her, not sure why she seemed to shocked at first. “Wait, is this making you un-“

“No! I mean- isn’t-“ she stumbled over her words before taking a pause to take a deep breath. He caressed her shoulder gently in an attempt to sooth her nerves, giving her time to figure out how to explain what was on her mind, glad that it at least seemed like he wasn’t causing her any discomfort.

“Are you ok with me carrying you for this long? You didn’t say anything to make me put you down?” She said finally, looking like she was trying to figure out some sort of though riddle.

“I like when you carry me.” He said truthfully. After all, why wouldn’t he like it? He got to be close to her.

“...you do?” The question was gentle, her cheeks became tinted with a sweet pink colour. Her pretty lips slightly parted in surprised, and her eyes widening.

“Yeah.” He replied breathlessly, looking into those beautiful, kind, and soft eyes, loosing himself in their grey depths.

“Excuse me Miss? I need to pass through here?” Their gazing was cut off by a man awkwardly standing behind them with a decently sized trolly.

“Oh, Sorry.” Edda said, cheeks going from pink to stark red, stepping away from the middle of the road.

“Thank you Miss, you two have a nice day.” The man nodded quickly before returning to pulling the trolly and walked down the slowly crowding street.

Arthur hadn’t noticed it before, but it seemed like the amount of people had grown a bit, he wondered to himself how much longer they could stay in the town before the crowd became too big for Edda. And then, as his eyes were still following the trolly, he caught the sight off a stall that made his chest swell in excitement.

The stall was notably wider than the others around it, the owner of it slotted into one of the stalls corners, with a long table standing against the back of the stall, which had multiple sets of cans stacked on top of each other. The counter in front of the table had matching sets of balls stacked in small piles, and all around the stall hung a multitudes of knickknack, raging from bags of candy that looked just like the ones they had bought a while ago, to adorable stuffed animals. When he squinted a little he could even spot something that looked suspiciously like the notebooks that Edda had shown a particular fondness for before!

“What are you looking at- Oh that’s neat,” Edda said, her face breaking into a warm smile as he turned to look at her. “You wanna go try your luck at winning something?” She cocked her head towards the stall.

He wanted to win something alright. Just imagining her face lighting up in happiness as he presented her the notebook made his chest swell.

_“Thank you Arty!” Edda hugged the book to her chest, a wide grin on her face. “I could just kiss you!”_

Back in reality, he nodded feverishly to Eddas question, getting lost in his eagerness for a moment before he was able to reign himself in and let out a small chuckle.

“Oh, believe me M’lady, when I win you something it won’t be a matter of luck.” He removed one of his hands from her shoulder to show off his biceps, she just responded with a crooked smile and an amused snort. He realised that her snorts had an odd charm to them, similar to that of her cackling laugh.

“I guess we’ll have to see about that Arty.” She hoisted him up slightly in her arms, seemingly to secure her grip on him. Arthur felt his heart flutter, tightening his hold on her as well.

Walking up to the stall, Edda let Arthur reposition himself so he was hanging around her shoulder again, getting into a position to throw properly.

“How much for two people?” Edda asked the owner of the stall.

“Depends, it’s 10 copper for each pile of balls, do you two wanna share one?” The stall owner answered.

“Wait,” Arthur said, looking at Edda in confusion, “what do you mean two?”

Edda’s lips tugged into a grin.

“If _you’re_ going to try to win _me_ something, then you better know I’m going to try to return the favour.” She gave him a boop on his nose.

Arthur blinked for a few seconds. Sure all the previous dates he’d been on had included his date trying to return the favour when it came to him winning stuff for them, but this wasn’t really how they had done it... Still, her trying to win him something too made his body fill with joy.

He knew that whatever she would win for him he would treasure forever.

“So, uh, you wanna share a pile or do you wanna get your own?” Edda asked snapping him out of his daze.

“I’ll-“

“WELL ISN’T THIS SWEET?” a loud, awfully familiar voice cut trough the air, cutting Arthur off, “FIRST YOU FLEE FROM BATTLE, THEN YOU CLING TO A YOUNG HAG LIKE A BABE? HOW TRULY PATHETIC OF YOU DWARF!”

They looked over towards where the voice was coming from, and a few meters away, yelling at the top of his lungs as he walked towards them, was Lord Simon with his Nobelmen goons.

“Oh, this asshole again.” Edda muttered unenthusiastically.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that was the new chapter! Thank you for reading it! It was, very fluffy.  
> It was originally supposed to cover a longer stretch of time, with their excursion in the town only taking up a little bit... As you can see that didn’t happen. I guess I just kinda got lost in the sauce when imagining their time in the town and suddenly I had written 6000+ words and they were still in the town. That does mean that there will be more fluffy stuff over from this chapter waiting to be put on paper for the next, so look forward to that, I guess?  
> Anyway.  
> The dream Arthur spoke about in the beginning of the chapter is a reference to the Arthurian story of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, mostly referencing the beginning of the story since it seems like it’s the point where Arthur would be present, since the story mostly focuses on Sir Gawain, a knight of the round table. I’m mostly just using Overlysarcasticproductions of the story as a reference to how the story basically, as I still need to sit down and actually consume some Arthurian legends. 😅  
> Also, that play mentioned in this chapter? The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde baybeee, because I have a problem where I can’t go too long in a creative venture without making a reference to the story.  
> And that’s all I got right now. Again, thank you for reading this chapter, hope you liked it, and I hope you have a nice day!


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